The latest Bluebirds news from Cardiff City Stadium.

Here are your Cardiff City headlines for Friday, February 7.

Simic has to beat competition to play

Roko Simic has to leapfrog some stiff competition is he is to get some minutes for the first team, says Omer Riza.

The Bluebirds take on Stoke City in the FA Cup tomorrow and it might represent the perfect opportunity to throw Simic into the action for his debut.

The Croatian youth international scored on his under-21s debut against Everton last Saturday, coolly finishing after latching on to a lovely Aaron Ramsey pass, in a timely boost following his disappointing loan stint with KV Kortrijk. Sign up to our daily Cardiff City newsletter here.

He has now recovered from injury and training often with the first team. And, given he was omitted from the under-21s team this afternoon, he might be involved for his senior debut in the Potteries tomorrow. He does, however, have to get past Callum Robinson and Yousef Salech in the striker pecking order in the weeks and months to come.

“He’s training with us every day,” Riza said of Simic. “If we have everyone back, he might train with the under-21s, but I like to see him up training with us every day so I can cast an eye over him, because he isn’t getting minutes with us with the first team. He is playing some minutes for the under-21s.

“He scored the other day. We’ve got a good group, a strong group and there’s a lot of players he has to get through to get the opportunity. So he’s got to keep working hard and show good attitude and character. But he is training.”

Riza: I held talks with Fish over January exit

Riza has admitted he had question marks over whether to allow Will Fish to head out on loan in January, but is content with the decision to keep him at the club and wants him to fight for his place.