It was a great weekend for Welsh players in the capital, unless they happened to be playing for Cardiff City.

The Bluebirds lost 3-0 at home to Leeds United to leave home fans concerned that their promotion play-off hopes are dwindling, unless the club can gain a second wind through January transfer activity.

But for Dan James – part of a trio of Wales and Leeds players – there is a firm belief they can achieve a Euro 2024 finals and Premier League double this season.

James, Ethan Ampadu and Joe Rodon were key figures in an utterly dominant display where the 3-0 victory margin for the visitors could easily have been doubled.

But Leeds winger James has warned his Finnish teammate Glen Kamara he will only be allowed one win in Cardiff this season.

Kamara will be on the opposite side when the midfielder returns to the Welsh capital in March for a crunch Euro 2024 play-off semi-final between Wales and Finland.

“I think Ethan joked to Glen that hopefully this is the last win you get here,” said James, a Leeds scorer alongside Patrick Bamford and Georginio Rutter.

“It’s obviously a match that we three are really looking forward to. It’s going to be a tough game, Finland will be a good team, but it’s always nice to have a home fixture.”

 

Wales’ triple crowners

Wales fans will hope their Leeds threesome – a Dai-umvirate – can repeat their influence as they were all at the heart of Leeds’ most commanding away performance of the season.

James is enjoying his most prolific season in front of goal having notched his ninth league goal of the 2023/24 campaign in the win over Erol Bulut’s side.

The former Swansea City and Manchester United player has also picked up six assists this season, while Ampadu and Rodon have established themselves as integral to Leeds’ success and partnered each other in central defence as their team registered back-to-back clean sheets.

As a new year statement, three successive 3-0 victories is a noisy declaration that Daniel Farke’s side are coming on strong for the second half of the campaign.

James added: “Today was just about coming here and showing what we can do.

“We dominated the ball, especially in the first half. I thought we played very well, all over the pitch. We controlled the game well and it was an important win for us.

“I think the way the team plays is always to set me up to do what I love doing – running behind, getting the ball, driving at players.”

For Cardiff, it was another sobering defeat. From their last seven home games, they have collected just four points – relegation form that must be making their manager Bulut wonder if his reputation would be improved or damaged by committing to a new contract.

Bulut admitted: “Shadow marking will not help us.We were not aggressive enough and not speedy enough.”

“You can lose a game but you have to fight and today that was not that case.”

 

Joy for Jordan

It was a similar story for Swansea City – in that their hopes of victory were undone by a Wales international.

Jordan James was the player as his injury time goal gave Birmingham City a 2-2 draw at St. Andrews, denying new Swans coach Luke Williams a victory in his Championship match in charge.

“It was disappointing because there was such little time (after Birmingham’s late equaliser) but if you take the game overall, Birmingham deserved at least a point,” said Williams.

“We didn’t create enough clear-cut chances to have won – maybe three good chances – but you can’t win a game like that if the other team create three good chances.”

 

Wrexham climb

No such problems again for Wrexham, whose 2-0 home win over Wimbledon lifted them to second place in League Two, just two points behind Stockport County, with a game in hand.

Wrexham have now won six out of their last seven matches in all competitions, although manager Phil Parkinson sets high standards and was not entirely satisfied.

“I thought we lacked urgency in the first half,” said Parkinson.

“It was almost a feeling of this will just take care of itself, but everybody knows in football you have got to make it happen as a team.

“We didn’t quite get our press right and we have to work on that, but we worked hard enough to make sure it was 0-0 at half-time.

“Then, second half I thought we responded really well. Sometimes when you are not at your fluent best, a set-play changes the flow of the game.”

 

Super Seb

Newport also moved up the League Two ladder, thanks to an injury time winner at Doncaster Rovers, scored by Seb Palmer-Houlden.

County are up to 17^th and look in good shape for the north-south Welsh derby this weekend at home to Wrexham.

Manager Graham Coughlan said: “We are building a nice little bit of momentum so hopefully we can keep it going.

“Like I said to the lads, you don’t always have to play well in League Two to win, you just have to get the intensity levels right.”