Craig Bellamy begins assault on Championship

In a packed Cardiff City stadium bursting with replica kits bearing his name, Craig Bellamy mounted an attack on the division’s leading scorer charts in an explosive debut that left Cardiff City fans feeling very excited.

Bellamy helped shift 1,000 replica kits alone on Saturday, creating some much needed income for the club, and it’s easy to see why the Cardiff fans are optimistic after he created two and scored a goal on his Championship debut for the club.

Walking straight into the team as captain, Bellamy is as short as 4/1 to be the division’s top goalscorer with his nearest rival, Middlesbrough’s Kris Boyd, available at 7/1 after also opening his account at the weekend.

However Cardiff might struggle to keep hold of their local hero come January with a host of Premiership clubs keeping tags on the striker after he was made unavailable to them by Manchester City in this transfer window.

If Bellamy can continue to keep up this standard of performance over the next four months then it remains to be seen if Manchester City can keep Bellamy out of the Premier League.

In the meantime Jay Bothroyd has already capitalised on the quality service that Bellamy provides, bagging two goals at the weekend, and is better value to become the Championship’s top scorer at odds of 20/1.

With the pressure easing on the ex-Arsenal striker since the arrival of Bellamy, he looks a decent bet to improve on his 11 league goals from last season and a 20-goal target isn’t unattainable.

Cardiff’s odds for promotion have been cut after picking up seven points from their opening three games, they are now second favourites to win the Championship at 6/1. See the full NPower Championship betting market here.