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Game #18 sees the Bluebirds home and under the lights once again for the visit of high flying Watford after an encouraging result on Saturday for our boys in blue.
Our visitors come to us sat nicely in 7th place in the table, which will surely be a disappointment to them and their undoubted promotion aspirations.
Manager Rob Edwards was of course jettisoned rather unceremoniously after just 11 games and replaced by the uncompromising and experienced Croat Slaven Bilic. Results since Bilic has taken the helm have been a little mixed, but in recent weeks there have been glimmers that things may be starting to settle with 3 wins in their last 5.
Their squad is, as you'd expect packed with quality, none more so than top scorer Ismaila Sarr (5 goals, 4 assists), how they've managed to keep hold of him for so long is one of the great Championship mysteries.
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Clueso arrives at a cunning deduction
in the bizarre case of Sarr staying put.
As an attacking force the Hornets will no doubt be a handful but they appear to be a fairly solid outfit too, with old warhorses such as Tom Cleverly, Dan Gosling and Craig Cathcart amongst their number, complimented by regulars such as Christian Kabasele and Hassane Kamara.
Although Watford are known as the Hornets, and have been since around the 1950's after switching from blue shirts to their current gold (now why on earth ANYONE, EVER, would switch from blue to any other colour is beyond me
) with the badge also sporting a Hornet.... it transpires though that in 1978 the Hornet crest was replaced by a hart – a male red fallow deer that represents the club’s location in the county of Hertfordshire and is seen on the Hertfordshire coat of arms.. who knew eh? I always thought it was a moose (Mmmm gotta love a raspberry ripple one)....
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When is a moose, not a mousse?
The last corresponding fixture back in March 2021 saw the play-off chasing Bluebirds succumb to a narrow 1-2 defeat with a 94th minute free kick winner from the visitors, consigning then Cardiff manager Mick McCarthy to his first defeat as Bluebirds boss. Our goal that day came from Hornets centre back Francisco Sierralta who turned a Josh Murphy cross into his own net.
Hopefully he can do us a similar favour tomorrow evening.
Overall in this fixtures, the Bluebirds do have the upper hand, with 23 wins to the Hornets 22 and 14 games drawn.
Early Bluebirds Team News
Star striker Callum Robinson is again missing, serving game number 2 of his 3 match ban, so Mark Harris is once again likely to deputise up top.
Rubin Colwill is edging ever closer to return, but one suspects that this may be a game too soon and Zac Davies is also still out.
The effective introduction of our Alpha Romeo from the bench on the weekend could suggest that a starting berth may well be within reach for the former Millwall man which could allow deputy Tom Sang to move a litte further forwards into the midfield, however, it is more likely that a Romeo start will see Sang back on the bench instead.
With a stunning wining goal on Saturday, could we see a start for Jaden Philogene, possibly in place of the once again struggling Ojo?
Prutton Predicts
Yet again, old Davey boy refuses to note the promising signs the Bluebirds are now showing and is predictably predicting another defeat, this time by a 0-2 scoreline.
Beginning to wonder if we turned him down as a player at some point as he really doesn't seem to like us much any more!?
The bookies too are favouring an away win this time around, with odds currently as follows;
Home Win 15/8 Draw 9/4 Away Win 6/4
Managers Mumblings
Mark Hudson
“We know that Watford are a good team. They’ve got some really good players and individual match-winners, so again we need to be looking forward to it at our stadium.
"It’s an opportunity for them to come to us, and we’ve got to deliver on our game plan and play our way, which we will do.
“We’re going to have to be right at our top level to get the result, so we’re looking forward to it."
Slaven Bilic
"I watched a few of their games, I like that team (Cardiff). They have energy, they have quality, they play on the front foot. They play good,"
"Yes they lost a few games. But in a couple of them, against Swansea and QPR they had red cards early in the game, then they didn't have chance. But apart from that, they are electric. They are on the front foot, they are good defensively, very solid. A good team.
“It’s important we go there and play our own game. The big thing for our psychology is keeping up this confidence and momentum, and getting to mid-November with as many points as possible. We’ll train today before we travel across to Cardiff, and we’ll be ready to go again.”
(Knew I always liked him!!)
Sharing The Love
"I saw my mate, the other day, he said he'd seen, the white Pele, I asked him, who that could be, he told me it was Don Cowie". Ahh, what a ditty that was and in fairness what an excellent, yet unsung player from the Malky era (another shared name on the list).
Some excellent names make the list for this one, including as mentioned Malky Mackay who led both teams to relative "success" and notched up over 100 games managed for each, as well as some older names like the notorious Dai "the Pie" Thomas of Panorama fame.
We have Heidar Helguson, our overall to scorer in our promotion season with a stunning 9 goals (see, who says you need big numbers eh?) and also current Welsh Gaffer Rob Page.
Special brief mention for Chopra, who's exploits in blue are all too familiar, but during a brief loan spell at Watford he actually scored 5 goals in 5 league games, quite some record!
I have to give a big shout out though to Jimmy Gilligan, who became my goal scoring hero as a teenage Bluebird. Joining us from Lincoln for a reported £17,500, he went on to score the goals that would see us promoted in 1988 as well as winning the Welsh Cup during his time with us plus also notching a memorable European Cup Winners Cup hat-trick v Derry City. With a record of 35 goals in 99 games he was always going to be missed after he departed for Portsmouth in a £215,000 deal that saw him pair up again with his former Bluebird boss Frankie Burrows.
Sadly his career went massively downhill after his time on the south coast, ending up in the footballing wilderness of West Wales.
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Jimmy Gilligan in action, typically supported closely by strike partner Kevin Bartlett - What a duo they were!
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So, can we avoid being stung by the Hornets? Can we stop the Moose, cutting loose, aboot our hoose?? Will flying Philogene follow up on his weekend heroics??? Can we slay Slaven's boys and give him electrifying chills????
All I know is 3 more points may see us move into mid-table mediocrity, and possible above the Wurzles, which right now looks quite appealing and would go down ever so well in the Brizzle household!!
Blooooooooobirds!!!!
