All hail the new King, hurrah, we have a permanent (short term) leader once again! As we all now know, Omer Riza has been given the nod to continue with his ‘revolution’ until the end of the season, though that will clearly be subject to results, which, if truth be told, need to start improving again soon, otherwise it could be a very short-lived dynasty. We go into this one off the back of an encouraging, yet disappointing draw away at Coventry last weekend. After looking nailed on for all 3 points the Bluebirds were somewhat miffed at seeing an debatable late penalty given against them that reduced those valuable 3 points down to 1 to still leave us without a win on the road. Harsh it may have been but at least the performance was better than the preceding ones and that is something that we definitely need to carry into this weekends game as we welcome high flying Watford to the CCS, one of the current form teams in the division. Who Are You? Our visitors have relatively rookie Tom Cleverley in the dugout nowadays. He initially took control as caretaker manager in March this year, before being announced on a permanent basis in April (just how did they make such a quick decision? We all know it takes months for such things to be sorted!) Cleverly had a decent playing career representing the likes of Manchester United, Everton, Aston Villa and his current club Watford, among others. He also made 13 appearances for England and represented Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics. He was forced to retire last year due to injury and took his first step into coaching as Watford U18s manager back in July 2023. He stayed in the role until the dismissal of First Team manager Valérien Ismaël in March, when he stepped up to take control. Since taking the job, Cleverley is the only manager in the top four leagues to be unbeaten at home and has a win percentage of 52.17%, winning 12 games, drawing three and losing eight. The Hornets' key play this season has been Giorgi Chakvetadze, who joined the club at the start of the 2023/24 campaign from Belgian side KAA Gent. Chakvetadze impressed this summer, representing his country Georgia at their first ever European Championship and helping his nation progress to the round of 16 stage. A versatile attacker who operates effectively both out wide and in the number 10 role, he has the third most chances created in the Championship this season, creating 40 chances so far. Top scorer so far this year is Ivorian Vakoun-Issouf-Bayo who despite being sold to Udinese was loaned back to Watford for the rest of the season. Udinese of course are owned by the Pozzo family who also have a large stake in Watford too. He is very ably backed up by Edo Kayembe, with the Congolese scoring 5 so far this season. Another eye catching name in the Watford line up is Moussa Sissoko, the dominating midfielder re-joining from Nantes. He was without doubt an excellent player first time around for the Hornets and despite his age, he has clocked up 15 appearances already this term. Defensively, they have an OK kind of record (very mid-table) and have the likes of Scot Ryan Porteous, Algerian Yasser Larouci, Chilean Francisco Sierralta and Englishman Matt Pollock forming a ‘league of nations’ back line. I have in fact managed to get some inside secret footage of what it’s like inside the Watford dressing room…. Last Time Out & Form Last time out the Bluebirds came away from Vicarage Road having bagged all 3 points, with the travelling fans doffing their caps to Bowler who put us ahead with a strike that capped off a top performance by the away aide. The 1-0 win came despite the Bluebirds being 2nd best in terms of shots, possession and accuracy of passing, however, the goal when it came was worthy of winning the match. The result meant that over the past 14 meetings between the teams, only two matches have been won by the home side. Let’s hope we can buck the trend this weekend. The Hornets form this season has been steadily improving, though away from home their form is only marginally better than our own, having picked up just 7 points from their 9 away games so far (16th best in the division). By contracts their home form is 2nd only to Sheffield Utd, so thank goodness this weekends game is being played at the CCS! Over the last 6 games they have only tasted defeat once (down the road just west of the CCS) but have also stuttered to draws away at fellow strugglers Plymouth and home against QPR, so we do have some hope. We have also only lost 2 of our last 6 v the Hornets (2 wins and a draw in the last 3), so again, a little sign of encouragement maybe? In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About Following the improved performance at the CBS Arena last weekend I don’t envisage there being too many changes, however, one enforced one is likely to be David Turnbull, who sadly limped off with a suspect hamstring injury against the Sky Blues. With him having dropped to the bench I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Rubin Colwill is deemed the natural replacement. I’d fully expect Meite to keep his place in the starting 11 once again having given arguably his best performance in a City shirt and scoring too. That aside, the only other potential change I could see may be at central defence. With his handball costing the team 2 points, could we see Chambers replaced by either Daland or Fish perhaps? Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Ng Daland Goutas Collins Meite Colwill Siopis Robertson Robinson O’Dowda The Odds Bods This week we have our very own ‘white Pele’ picking up the odds duties. This guy was a good, solid reliable performer for the Bluebirds and the Hornets in his day, rarely letting us down when out on the pitch. Top Boy Top Trumps Back to it this week…. Given Watford’s array of attacking talent I figured we could compare the creative talents of their highly rated Georgian against our own promising midfield ‘creator’ Rubin Colwill (I was going to suggest Turnbull but with him being injured it seems a little pointless) I would go so far as to say that our Rubin stacks up pretty well, though if there were one criticism it would be that given his XG (2nd only at the club to Callum Robinson) and number of shots taken, he really should have scored 1 or 2 more. But still, the Georgian Chakvetadze is very highly rated so it would seem that perhaps our own home grown talent may still be on track to achieve what many think he can. Match Day Melody Now things are a little more settled, surely we all need to be….. (It HAD to be an Elton song for this one didn’t it?) Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!!
Weather review due to Storm Darragh at 11.00am in the morning. Lots of unhappy fans on Facebook saying it's too late especially for travelling Watford fans. They probably have a point. Loads of Parkruns across south Wales already cancelled. As far as I can see Trelai is still on Irish!!!
Cheers Bluey. Trelai is now off as well. Funny enough Trelai Park, or Ely Racecourse as it was often called , was the only council pitch that would often be playable in bad weather, when I played parks football. Maybe because it was on a hill and the water just ran off it!
Yes, it was the same when I played Cardiff and District footie too many years ago to mention. Although the pitches would stay relatively dry the bloody wind used to whip up like he'll across there. As far as I can see Swansea Bay is about the only Parkrun left on in south Wales at present. Haven't checked Grangemoor or Tremorfa though.
What’s the betting the storm will be nowhere as bad as predicted? Just the odd shower predicted by met office tomorrow afternoon
They’re all off. I’d be surprised if Swansea was on. Barry and Newport off and probably your local at Porthcawl.
I think it's more to do with the fan's safety rather than the game itself. Many supporters both home and away will be travelling to the game long before the event and that's the real danger rather than in the ground at 3pm.
Porthcawl called off 3 hours ago. High tide not due until 11.00 and no trees to fall on people. Might have got a bloody hell of a blow job though. But not in a good way.
Swansea not dis-similar to Porthcawl but with less hills and more trees. A nice, relatively flat, out and back course. Good if you want a pb with the wind behind you on the return.
Anyone else getting a sense of déjà vu? Tuesday night sees our 2nd attempt to host Watford at the CCS following our postponed game just 5 short weeks ago. Of course, that encounter isn’t bow our most recent one with the Hornets given that we played them (and surprisingly beat them) at Vicarage Road just prior to New Year. Whilst it’s way too soon to suggest that the ‘feel good’ factor is back amongst our long suffering fans, since that Vicarage Road victory our Bluebirds are yet to taste defeat, having picked up creditable draws in our subsequent 2 league games and our recent victory in the FA Cup at Bramall Lane – can we keep the ‘good times’ rolling back at the CCS? Who Are You? See above Last Time Out & Form As mentioned above, last time out was literally just a fortnight ago, with the Bluebirds walking away from the Hornet’s nest with all 3 points – Watford’s first home defeat this season and conversely the City’s first away win of the campaign too. https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/video/player/0_fcvwh691 Since that defeat, Watford have gone into a bit of a tailspin, with their subsequent 2 matches also ending in defeat, so they’ll definitely be keen to avoid a 4th loss to prevent further damage to their faltering play-off hopes. It seems strange to say it, but over the last 6 games, the Bluebirds form is actually marginally better than that of our visitors thanks to conceding 1 goal less than them, otherwise we have both picked up just the 6 points out of the last 18 on offer and have both scored 8 goals in that period too. In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About After the 7 changes for the FA Cup match there can be little doubt that Omer Riza will revert back to the tried and tested with his starting 11 for this one. It was good to see Kion Etete back but his 45 minutes only seemed to highlight his rustiness after so long out. Rubin Colwill did little to suggest he should be forcing his way back into the starting line up with Parry Ng also sadly joining him in that respect following a mixed bag of a performance on Thursday. One player who should be starting however is the hot in form Cian Ashford who is definitely surfing the crest of a confidence wave at this moment in time. In all honesty, given how we were relatively comfortable against Watford away from home I wouldn’t be surprised to see Omer select the same starting 11 subject to availability. Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Chambers Daland Goutas Rinomhota O’Dowda Robertson Siopis Robinson Ashford Willock The Odds Bods The Don is back! Match Day Melody She’s one of our own, she’s one of our own……. Hello again Watford….. Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!! (P.S. Apologies for going a bit early with this one – I know I’m going to be busy Monday & Tuesday!!)
Oi! You can't talk about Perry Ng like that, though he was crap I suppose. Did you know that there's a freelance journalist called Kate Ng that occasionally works for the Beeb? I can see The Hornets being a completely different proposition this time around and we have the disadvantage of being at home. One thing is for sure and that is that we have to start winning if we're to avoid Uncle Albert in League One next season. Recent results have shown that we can't rely on others this season. I'm sure we'll give it our best. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds Ps Thanks as always for the thread Brizzle.
We played well at Watford and deserved the win and I am expecting a similar performance on Tuesday. We will however have to watch out for Rocco Vata who scored this cracking goal against Fulham in the cup yesterday.
