Cardiff City defender Mark Kennedy has hailed skipper Mark Hudson as Captain Fantastic.

Sparky, speaking ahead of Saturday's trip to face Sheffield United, said: "Our back five is a little team within a team and we always say if we can keep a clean sheet and let the lads do what they do up front, every little helps. If we can keep those clean sheets and tighten things up, I'm sure we'll be OK because the way we play football we can always score goals.

"There are a lot of new faces at the back and it has taken time to gel. We are coming together as a unit, not just the back five, but as a team. We're defending rom the front as well - that's one of the things we work on at this club.

"Mark Hudson has come in and I played alongside him at Palace for a couple of years. He's a great guy on and off the pitch and a fantastic captain.

"Anthony Gerrard also arrived during the summer and Jez is quite boisterous - a typical Scouser. He's great to have around the place. He's a big powerful player, very aggressive and incredibly strong in the air, which is exactly what you need for a centre half, and as we've already seen this season he can play on the ground. It's important not to forget that Gabor had a great seaon last year and can count himself extremely unlucky to be out of the team, but he's waiting for his chance."

City could go top with victory tomorrow, but Kennedy said: "We're not thinking about that. You don't win anything in October. This league is so tight - on Tuesday we won to go third,  but if we'd lost we'd have been tenth. Normally around now you see gaps opening but one win or defeat can make a big difference to your position.

"I'm told Sheffield United haven't won in their last five games, but Liveroool have lost four in a row and I wouldn't like to play them on Saturday. This is a tough league - Ipswich are bottom but I still wouldn't like to play them on Saturday either."