Erol Bulut has put Wales striker Kieffer Moore at the top of his festive shopping list – and sounds confident Father Christmas will deliver him.

The Cardiff City boss must wish Moore was part of his team that travel to face Preston North End on Saturday.

Bulut just missed out on bringing the 31-year-old back to the Welsh capital after his transfer to Bournemouth for £5m in January 2022, having scored 20 goals for the Bluebirds in the previous season.

Now, Bulut wants to get him back in blue for a promotion push in the New Year. Ahead of their trip to Preston, Bulut’s boys are sitting ninth, two points off the play-off places.

“We have some players as targets for January and Kiefer Moore is one of them. We are looking to bring in three or four players,” said Bulut.

“We tried to get him at the start of the season but couldn’t fix it. It’s not just about us, we’ll have to talk to his club.

“They were trying to sell him at the start of the season and that’s why the deal didn’t go through. We couldn’t pay them because of an EFL ban on us paying fees.

“We have to have discussions with them and I don’t know what will happen in January, but our chairman and chief executive are working hard on it.

“I watched him start for Wales against Croatia and he played a good game. I was expecting him to start against Turkey earlier this week, but the manager decided otherwise.

“He’s been on the bench at Bournemouth this season, but if we can get Kieffer, we would not leave him on the bench – we would use him. That’s why I want him!”

Wales boss Rob Page has said he wants more of his players, who face a Euro play-off clash with Finland and then either Poland or Estonia in March, to be playing regularly.

Cardiff are currently ninth in the Championship table, eight places and five points above Swansea City, who welcome Hull City to the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday.

As they resume after the international break, head coach Michael Duff has one word to describe his team’s season so far – okay.

The Swans are down in 17^th place but are only seven points adrift of the play-offs and Duff says: “After a tough start, I think it’s been okay.

“There is still loads of room for growth but there are things that have been put in place to try to help move it forward.

“We want to be as competitive as possible. We want to get to a point where we are in the top six, that’s the end goal, then do something with that.”

Wrexham dropped back down to fourth place in League Two after defeat at Accrington last week and will be anxious to get the Hollywood-fuelled show on the road again at home to Morecambe.

That was only Wrexham’s third defeat in their last 18 league matches and manager Phil Parkinson insists: “We are a group that sticks together.

“Morecambe are just outside the play-offs. They are another team that came down last season and it will be another tough game but one we are obviously capable of getting a result in.

“We have got a great record here at The Racecourse but it is about regrouping and getting ready to put in a really good Wrexham performance at the weekend.”

Newport County are down in 20^th and uncomfortably close to the relegation zone, should they fail to pick up points at home to Stockport County.

But County manager Graham Coughlan has striker Seb Palmer-Houlden back to fitness after recovering from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for three months.