Article: Steve Garland

Dave Jones is looking for a second severnside derby victory of the season on Tuesday evening, as the Bluebirds turn their focus back to the FA Cup and their third-round replay against Bristol City.

Speaking prior to the first FA Cup tie to be held at Cardiff City Stadium, Dave said: "The promotion push doesn't matter tomorrow because it is a cup tie and I will put a team out that I think will get us a result. Then when the league comes back around we will focus on that push.

"Both sides know each other inside out," Dave added, "They are coming off the back of a good result against Preston having not had the best of times prior to that, but both teams will go into the game with confidence after two tough games."

Following a battling performance against Scunthorpe United on the weekend, Dave insisted that his threadbare squad was doing as much as it could saying: "We are just digging deep at the moment. We have had a lot of injuries, a retirement, an illness in the case of Stephen McPhail.

"In my time at the football club I have never known us to have so many problems and the majority of them, if not all of them are something we couldn't do anything about. A lot of them have been down to impact and some of them may have been used more than we would have liked because of the situation that we find ourselves in.

"But one thing I can assure the fans is that everybody is digging deep and they're fighting and scrapping like they did against Scunthorpe and that is all you can ever ask of them. Peter Whittingham has played every minute of every game we've played and it's too many and when they are coming thick and fast maybe could have done with a bit of a rest, but at the moment we can't do it.

"The important thing is that he doesn't moan or groan about it he just gets on with it and thats the sign of a good squad and a good bunch of lads and I can never fault them on that. I can when we have put in some poor performances, but I can never fault them on the commitment to try and do well for this football club or for themselves."

With his threadbare squad at full stretch, Dave insisted that everything was being done to try and get in a few reinforcements saying: "Everybody's frustrated, the Chairman's frustrated, but we could get the four players in and then have another glut of injuries. Everybody is just digging deep at the moment.

"Theres a couple on loan and theres a couple that we will have to purchase. There is good experience there and a good know how within those four players, but until I discuss it with the Chairman today we will have to wait and see."