Bluebirds target top-tier talent
Cardiff City chairman Peter Ridsdale has told BBC Sport Wales they hope to sign a loan striker from the Premier League before facing QPR on Saturday.
The Bluebirds lost strikers Ross McCormack and Jay Bothroyd to hamstring injuries last weekend against Wolves.
Ridsdale said: "We're concentrating on the Premier League and I'm hopeful we'll have a Premier League striker in hopefully well before Saturday."
McCormack is out for up to four weeks and Bothroyd for up to eight.
Ridsdale added: "We're going for the Premier League because clearly they are the players of a calibre and it's more likely they'll have a big enough squad to be allowed to have somebody out on loan.
"None of our Championship rivals want us to do well during this period so they won't help us and in lower leagues the ones that are doing very well are people they want to sell if at all and, of course, you can't buy until January."
Boss Dave Jones has only Eddie Johnson and Paul Parry available to fill the gaps until a new recruit can be signed
But it is unlikely to be former striker Michael Chopra who has fallen out of favour at Sunderland.
Bothroyd lasted just 13 minutes of Saturday's loss, while top scorer McCormack pulled up early in the second half having struck his 11th goal of the season.
The duo join midfielders Mark Kennedy, Riccardo Scimeca and Tony Capaldi on the mid-term injury list.
Jones has cover in midfield and defence but only has Johnson - a loan signing from Fulham who has yet to settle fully in the team - and Parry to rely on up front.
Between them, McCormack and Bothroyd have scored 14 of the Bluebirds' 19 league goals this season, helping to lift Cardiff to sixth in the Championship.
"We need someone now because of what's happened," said Jones.
"It's whether clubs at this stage of the season are going to be prepared to let them out, but it won't be for the want of trying.
"You know now it's five players out, and big players for us which is hard to swallow."
Cardiff seal Routledge loan move
Cardiff City have signed Aston Villa winger Wayne Routledge on loan.
The 23-year-old former England Under-21 player joins the Bluebirds for two months as cover for injured duo Joe Ledley and Peter Whittingham.
Ledley is expected to be out for up to a month with a dislocated finger, while Whittingham is facing three months out after rupturing ankle ligaments.
Routledge, who joined Villa from Tottenham, has only made just one Premier League appearance this season.
Ashley Young and James Milner are the first-choice wingers at Villa, while Gareth Barry can also play wide.
Routledge has struggled with injury and had previous loan spells at Fulham and Portsmouth during his time at Spurs prior to signing for Villa in January 2008.
Cardiff have recently taken former striker Michael Chopra on loan from Sunderland after injuries to strikers Ross McCormack and Jay Bothroyd.
Despite their lengthy injury list, Cardiff currently sit sixth in the Championship table.
Cardiff snap up Konstantopoulos
Greek keeper Dimi Konstantopoulos has joined Cardiff on a season-long loan, covering injury-victim Peter Enckelman.
The Coventry City player will join the Bluebirds squad on Tuesday and will compete with Tom Heaton for a starting spot for the rest of the season.
Enckelman underwent knee surgery on the weekend and is expected to be out for six-to-eight weeks.
Cardiff's local rivals Swansea had hoped to secure Konstantopoulos, 30, after he impressed there on loan.
But the Football League refused to extend his stay until the end of the season when a weather delay meant the paperwork for the deal was not signed before Monday's transfer deadline.
The chairmen of Swansea and Coventry wrote to the Football League to ask for the special dispensation due to the adverse weather conditions, as was granted by the Premier League.
But they were turned down and - because Konstantopoulos was signed on an emergency loan deal - he could not extend his 93-day stay.
Leeds United 0 - 4 Cardiff
Cardiff City fired a warning shot to their Championship rivals as Dave Jones' men demolished Leeds United in emphatic fashion.
Jay Bothroyd capitalised on a mix-up between keeper Kasper Schmeichel and Alex Bruce to give Cardiff the lead.
Michael Chopra beat the offside trap to score Cardiff's second from the edge of the box before Bothroyd guided in Chris Burke cross for his 11th of the season.
Lee Naylor's long-range strike rounded off a four-star night for Cardiff.
But for boss Simon Grayson it was his side's third successive home defeat as the Welsh team extended their 26-year unbeaten run against Leeds.
And Cardiff's fourth successive Championship victory moves them level on points with leaders Queen's Park Rangers - who are top only on goal difference, seven goals better off then the Bluebirds.
And their biggest win at Elland Road stretches Cardiff's unbeaten to six and was a real statement of intent from the Welshmen who are looking to better last season's play-off final defeat.
It took Jones' men just nine second-half minutes to ruthlessly tear a sorry Leeds side apart who had previously held it together after the defensive clanger that led to Bothroyd's opener.
But Leeds had started the brighter as Bruce glanced Robert Snograss's corner wide and Jonathan Howson going close with a 25-yarder.
But Bruce's error - not dealing with Cardiff keeper Tom Heaton's long punt upfield - and Schmeichel's misjudgement of the bounce - allowing the ball to go through his legs - left Bothroyd to score into an empty net.
And on-loan Wales captain Craig Bellamy had a chance for a second as he tested Schmeichel with a volley from the edge of the box before setting-up Seyi Olofinjana, whose shot was blocked.
Leeds were once again opened up at the back but Bothroyd, racing through, dragged his shot wide of the far post.
The hosts had chances as Jonathan Howson made a mazy run into the box, skipping through several challenges, but the ball got stuck under his feet at the crucial moment.
Then Bradley Johnson delivered a great ball from the left across the six-yard box but no-one was able to get on to the end of it.
Cardiff, though, gave another warning just before the break as Bellamy carved Leeds open down the left flank and cut back to Bothroyd whose shot was blocked by Paul Connolly.
Leeds failed to deal with the warning signs and it took George McCartney's goal-line clearance to deny Gabor Gypes' header after the restart.
But the second was not long in coming as Mark Hudson dispossessed Davide Somma to find Chopra who fired beyond Schmeichel for his first goal since coming back from ankle injury.
Four minutes later, Bellamy started the move of the night which eventually found Burke overlapping on the right to cut back to Bothroyd who crisply slotted the ball into the net.
And Bellamy was involved again on the hour as he found full-back Naylor who smashed in his second of the season from 25 yards with statuesque Schmeichel unsighted.
Leeds did put the ball in the net when Luciano Becchio beat Heaton but it was ruled out for offside just before substitute Ramon Nunez fired just over.
Grayson's problems are obvious as his Leeds have conceded 12 goals in their last three home defeats while Cardiff stretch their winning run over Leeds to five games.
