Cardiff’s first six league games: seven goals from 106 shots

Cardiff City have had 106 shots in six Championship matches, 17.67 a game and more than any of the 24 clubs in the division, with Middlesbrough and Queens Park Rangers next on 17.20. Thirty-five of those shots hit the target. Seven have gone in. Scoring with 20.00 per cent of the shots that reach the goalkeeper is the lowest return in the Championship, with Bolton Wanderers next lowest on 21.43 per cent, and accompanied a start that left Cardiff City 20th of 24 on four points, with no wins and four draws. Every figure here is API-Football's, drawn from the 66 fixtures this season for which the provider has published team statistics, rounds one to six, all 24 clubs covered.

What the expected-goals sample shows

Expected goals is the provider’s estimate of the quality of chances. Across the four matches with that measure, Cardiff had 64 shots worth 5.72 expected goals and scored six. The average was 0.089 expected goals per shot, eighth-lowest in the 9 September morning snapshot. That is an incomplete sample: expected goals was available for 39 of the 66 fixtures, so clubs were being compared across different sets of matches. The average alone cannot establish whether Cardiff missed particular good chances or explain the league position.

Moylan has shot more often than any player in the division

Jack Moylan has had 20 shots this season, more than any other player in the Championship, in a pool of 236 who have played 270 league minutes or more. Five have been on target and one has gone in. Yousef Salech has put eight shots on target, joint-most in the division alongside Cyle Larin of Southampton, Jarrod Bowen of West Ham United and William Lankshear of Middlesbrough, and has also scored once. Between the pair: 34 shots, 13 on target, and two of Cardiff City's seven goals.

Tuesday night was the season in one match

Cardiff City drew 1-1 at home to Stoke City on Tuesday 8 September with 26 shots to 12, seven on target to four, 18 shots inside the box to eight, and 71 per cent of the ball in front of 18,088. That 71 per cent is the joint-highest share any side has held in a Championship home draw this season, from 20 such results in the pool, level with West Bromwich Albion in a 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic. Ben Johnson put Stoke City ahead on 22 minutes and Joel Colwill headed the equaliser on 63 from a Christopher Willock cross. By the club's own account Cardiff City hit the woodwork three times in the same match, Ollie Tanner and Colwill off the post and a deflected Jack Moylan volley against it.

The head coach, on the crossbar and the post

Head coach Brian Barry-Murphy was asked about the finishing after the Stoke City draw. "We're clearly getting into good positions. I think we got very close to being ruthless, you know, we hit the crossbar and post multiple times. If they go in, it's a clinical performance and we've scored the goals," he said. "So we keep getting in the positions, we train a lot on finishing actions and the goals will be inevitable." On the centre forward: "Yousef looked really dangerous, I felt tonight. I'm really happy with his movement. We felt as if he was a little bit too far away from goal in certain instances on Saturday against Portsmouth, but tonight he looked really dangerous."

The other end is not quiet either

None of this describes a side under siege that cannot get out. Cardiff City have faced 5.33 shots on target a game, joint second-most of the 24 alongside Bolton Wanderers, Stoke City and Sheffield United, and behind Derby County's 6.60, and have conceded ten goals in the six. Nathan Trott has made 18 saves, fifth-most in the Championship and level with Watford's Federico Ravaglia. Bolton Wanderers away at the Toughsheet Community Stadium, kick-off 12:30 on Saturday, is the next chance to turn some of the volume into points: Bolton Wanderers are 22nd on four points from six, level with Cardiff City on points and three behind on goal difference.

The league comparisons below are a 9 September morning snapshot, before that evening’s games. The limits. Every league rank here comes from the 66 Championship fixtures for which API-Football has published team statistics, rounds one to six. Per-game rates compare cleanly across the division; raw totals do not, because twelve clubs have played six matches and twelve have played five. Expected goals exists on 39 of those 66 fixtures and on four of Cardiff City's six. The 1-2 defeat by Norwich City on 25 August was a League Cup tie and sits outside every figure above. The attendance, the scorers and the three woodwork strikes are the club's own record of the night rather than the provider's.

Correction, 10 September 2026: Cardiff had 18 shots inside the penalty area against Stoke, not 19. A fresh check of the provider’s match statistics confirmed 18, matching our match report. The overall 26-shot total was unchanged.