"Ah, Cardiff! They've got Craig Bellamy. They should win. I'll stick them down as well." And so begins the latest thought process of the casual punter in your local high-street bookmaker.

When Bellamy jumped at the opportunity to join his hometown club last month, he guaranteed at a stroke that Cardiff would now rub shoulders with the big names in England and Scotland on long-list accumulators everywhere.

And inevitably, the layers are on their guard, quoting the Bluebirds no bigger than 1.62 for the visit of Hull this weekend - pre-Bellamy, they would have been around 1.80.

So we've established that there's been a reaction to this sensational transfer, but is it an over-reaction? Can one player really make so much difference?

Well, the simple and honest answer has to be 'yes' but beyond the immediate feel-good factor around the Welsh capital, we think it's too early to jump to such radical conclusions and we can use the layers' extreme response to our advantage by getting with the visitors on the Asian handicap.

We won't dispute for a moment that Bellamy is the best player in the Championship - let's be frank, he was still one of the best players in the Premier League - and we won't dispute that his spiky personality could be the perfect antidote for any play-off hangover symptoms in the dressing room.

The Bluebirds will raise their game as a direct result of Bellamy's arrival but the benefits might not fully materialise for a while yet and favourite backers might be jumping the gun if they're taking it for granted that this fixture constitutes a routine three points for Dave Jones' men.

The Tigers haven't had the smoothest starts on their return to the Championship but that's understandable in light of the usual upheaval that follows relegation from the Premier League.

However, Nigel Pearson was a busy man last month and he now appears to be stamping his own authority on the team after bringing the likes Robert Koren, Jay Simpson and John Bostock to the club and we suspect improvement could be imminent.

It usually doesn't take the former Leicester boss long to instil some defensive discipline into his charges and he might feel he has a personal score to settle at this ground after losing last season's play-off semi-final on a penalty shoot-out with the Foxes.

Therefore, we'll take the visitors to make life difficult by snapping up odds of better than 1.57 on the full ball, ensuring our stakes are returned in the event that Cardiff triumph by one goal.

Meanwhile, Norwich suddenly seem to think they have this division by the short and curlies but they might be getting ahead of themselves slightly, so it might be worth a small punt on Barnsley to plunder the points at Carrow Road.

The Canaries were supposed to be sure-things at a similar price against Watford when they lifted the curtain on the Football League season last month but they were caught cold on that occasion and we like the look of 4.00 about the Tykes doing likewise.

Paul Lambert's men are certainly capable of hitting high standards but a top-heavy midfield containing the creative talents of Wes Hoolahan, Andrew Crofts and Andrew Surman can sometimes come up short in terms of steel.

The visitors are traditionally unfashionable at this level and an nightmare start to the campaign has set the tone for them to be under-rated here.

However, the Yorkshire outfit are unbeaten in three matches since their opening-day nightmare at QPR and a convincing win over pre-season favourites Middlesbrough last time out would suggest they are capable of mounting a play-off push.

Barnsley were a model of consistency once Mark Robins got to grips with the job last season and now they can build on what constitutes a positive start against a club where he played with distinction many years ago.

PICKS:
Hull City (+1.0) to beat Cardiff on the Asian handicap at 1.84 (Ladbrokes).
Barnsley to beat Norwich at 4.00 (Bet365).