Ashford hailed as 'the future' after making Cardiff City league bow
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Wales Under-21 striker Cian Ashford has been described as the “future” for Cardiff City.
Ashford made his Football League bow for Cardiff in Wednesday night’s 1-0 win at Birmingham.
The pacey front runner already had four cup appearances under his belt this season, but his 19 minute substitute appearance for goal scorer Josh Bowler was his Championship debut.
And he drew high praise from team mate Jamilu Collins.
The Nigerian international said: “He is a wonderful lad.
“I congratulated him immediately after the game, because he deserved that.
“You can see well, I think, he will be the future for Cardiff.
“He is a confident guy and I think this will give him confidence moving forward.”
Cardiff have high hopes over the Rhondda product, who has been at the club since joining the academy at the age of six.
He has represented Wales at age group levels, including scoring twice in the current under-21 European qualifying campaign.
In January he put pen to paper on a new club deal which will keep him at Cardiff City until June 2027.
Fans have been keen to see Ashford in league action.
Manager Erol Bulut had promised he would look to give his Bluebird fledglings a chance towards the end of the season with Cardiff out of play-off contention.
After Ashford’s league bow, the Cardiff boss said the spritely forward had deserved his opportunity.
"He had really good games at Under-21s and for the national team he had good games. He is training well with us, but small-sided games are different and on the big field everything is different," said Bulut.
"But he will learn, he is still 19 years old. He will have good moments again."
Bulut added: “Before the game, I said to him that maybe he could come on for 15 or 20 minutes, so I said to him, 'Are you nervous?' He said, 'No, no, I'm OK!'
"After the game I asked him and he said, 'In the game, I was really nervous!'
“There is a difference between Under-21s games and high-level Championship games!
"He has to learn many things, but for a start, tonight (at Birmingham), he was good."
Joel Colwill, younger brother of Cardiff’s Wales international Rubin, was also on the bench for Cardiff at Birmingham.
The midfielder, 19, has made three cup appearances this season, but has yet to make a league debut.
He could get his chance in the remaining four games of the Championship campaign.
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