Our hearty Bluebirds see themselves back on the road for this one with another trip to a former recent Premier League side in the form of much fancied Leicester City. Unlike our visit to Leeds, our hosts this week spent a decent length of time in the Premier League having been promoted back in 2014, and indeed were Premier League Champions just 7 years ago, defying odds that even our very own Sparky would have balked at, but the mighty have fallen and they now find themselves back in the footballing backwater of the Championship. In fairness to the Foxes and their new gaffer - the surprisingly appointed Enzo Maresca, they have begun their attempt at a return to the promised land with some style, winning both their opening games (albeit not totally convincingly perhaps) and despite losing many star names, they do however still boast many "top flight" players such as Vardy, Iheanacho, Albrighton, and Faes, not to mention new signing Harry Winks from Spurs. Of course, we've had many a game at the Kingpower (formerly the Walkers Stadium) and in fact have won 3 of our last 5 league visits there, including the last time out which saw a dramatic 1-0 win for the Bluebirds courtesy of an incredible late strike from on loan midfielder Victor Camarasa. Past Meetings Of course, we can't think of Leicester without thinking about THAT play-off encounter over 2 legs... what a contest that was - thank the stars for Yann Kermogant!! What Are The Odds On That? With such good form from our previous visits and the psychological edge we must hold from the play-offs, surely we're looking good Vince? No, really????? Bulut's Bulletin I'm a little premature with the thread for reasons that shall be explained shortly but as far as team news goes, we could have a new face in the squad by Saturday, possibly more, who knows, Erol's shopping list appears to have been quite extensive. What we do know however is that Ojo has now left the building and thus will not (thankfully) be available for consideration. Joe Ralls was apparently back in training this week and Robbo got some valuable minutes under his belt v QPR last weekend, so maybe, just maybe we could see him up top to provide more of an attacking spark, keeping Ugbo and Etete on the bench as "brute force" options if needed (not that either really could be described as brutes). Facing questions from the media, and in response to whether there has been a reaction in training following the first 2 results the Gaffer stated ""Of course. The manager speaks a little bit differently than he did before - not always can we be kind and soft, sometimes we have to be different to wake them up. "The QPR game, if you see the whole game - that should be three points for us. But we have to score. It was a little bit unlucky, QPR and Leeds - we could have six points, at least four points. But that is football. If you don’t score and you get countered, individual mistakes, it’s not easy then. "We had that possibility and enough chances against QPR. The game will change then. We took a risk, pushed to score and then we conceded. It was disappointing we couldn’t get at least one point. " And on Leicester themselves ""Leicester are a really good team. Just relegated from the Premier League and they have strong individual players. "We are preparing ourselves for that game. We are working hard." Well I Never I’m sure we’ve all been on a package holiday before, and most people have either heard of or been on holiday with Thomas Cook. However, did you know Thomas Cook himself organised the very first package holiday? A bespoke train trip from Leicester to Loughborough back in 1841 (probably the last time anyone willingly went to Loughborough for reasons of pleasure) . A statue of Thomas Cook, which was unveiled in 1991 to celebrate 150 years since that first trip, can be found outside of Leicester Railway Station today. Ooh, kiss me quick, Masky's coming!! Let’s hope that the Bluebirds bring back 3 points as a souvenir from their trip eh? Leicester also claims to be the UK’s leading location for the space industry. It's home to the National Space Centre, a museum and educational resource covering the fields of space science and astronomy, along with a space research programme in partnership with the University of Leicester. I’m sure they think they are lightyears ahead of us but with some luck we’ll bring them back down to earth with a bump! Sharing The Love This section has a bit of a double whammy for me this week, as Mrs Brizzle and I celebrate 22 years of marriage on Friday (well, I say celebrate, I'm sure she sees it as a bit of a sentence, but there we are, she got lucky!!) and so I am taking her to London for a long weekend to do some sight seeing, hence the thread going up now rather than tomorrow (Friday). Anyhow, enough of that slushy stuff (no, not away at Derby), onto the past shared "greats" of the game and a few old favourites, some lesser known plus an FA cup winning captain (sadly not for us). Ken Chisholm Chisholm, a former RAF fighter pilot, began his footballing career in the Junior game at Pollok as a 16 year old during the 1941/42 season. He made his debut in a Junior Cup defeat to Wishaw before going on to sign for Queen's Park, joining the club in 1942. During his time with the club, he represented Scotland in a wartime victory international, playing in a 3–2 victory over Ireland.[2] During wartime, he also featured for several English clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea as a guest player, before moving to Partick Thistle in 1946 where he made 34 appearances and scored 13 goals Transferring to Cardiff City in March 1952.[3] He made his debut in a 6-1 defeat against Sheffield United but went on to score 8 times in the last 11 games of the season to help secure promotion for the club. He finished as top scorer in his first season and shared top league scorer with Wilf Grant the following season, netting his only hattrick for the club in October 1953 in a 5–0 victory over Charlton Athletic. Peter Rodrigues Rodrigues was born in Cardiff, Wales, and originally turned out for his local schools. He went on to be selected for both Cardiff Schoolboys and for Welsh schoolboys, before signing for Cardiff City as a professional in May 1961. Rodrigues almost left the side before ever making a professional appearance for the club when Newport County offered £500 to take him to Somerton Park, but the offer was turned down by Cardiff. He went on to make his debut in a 3–3 draw with Sunderland in September 1963, and for the next three seasons he was virtually ever-present in the side. Later, after transferring to Southampton later in his career Rodrigues' first season at The Dell could not have been better, with the side winning their first and only FA Cup. Rodrigues played at right-back in the Wembley final, and captained the team, as Southampton beat Manchester United 1–0. being the last captain to be presented the FA Cup by the Queen. Nicky Platnauer He joined the Bluebirds in September 1986, thereby completing the set of all four levels of the Football League. After making his debut in a 1–1 draw with Halifax Town he was a regular in the 1986–87 season. He also featured heavily in the 1987–88 promotion winning season before helping Frank Burrows's "Bluebirds" to consolidate their third tier status in 1988–89. He left Ninian Park in August 1989, after he was picked up by Neil Warnock at league rivals Notts County for a £50,000 fee. The highlight of Platnauer's time though has to be his goals in the comback win in the League Cup against Chelsea at Ninian Park in 1986... I still recall the chants on the way home; "1-0 down, 2-1 up, we knocked Chelsea out the cup" - fun times. So, can we hunt down the Foxes and hound them into submission? Will our passing be crisp enough to annoy the feck out of Gary "Righteous" Lineker as we walk away with 3 points?? Will the spirit of Yann please Tan and make Bulut the Man??? All I know is I should just be leaving the Palace (Buckingham, not Crystal) as we're kicking off in front of yet another away day sell-out and will be adding my voice and hoped virtually to the Bluebird hoards.... Blooooooooooobirds!! (P.S. Quick further disclaimer, Mrs Brizzle and I are also off to Malaga next weekend so look out for further early threads!).
Congratulations to both of you Brizzle. Twenty two years is a long time for a Wurzel to put up with a Bluebird. I hope your celebrations go well. As for your write up, I'm afraid I don't have anywhere near the same capacity as you for original writing. Suffice to say, the superlatives although limited by my own vocabulary, are none the less offered with sincerity. Or, another bloody brilliant Brizzle masterpiece. As for the game, difficult to see a way of coming home with even one point. That said, if our frontline and midfield can hold the ball up a bit more, perhaps our resolute (albeit accident prone) defence would not have to undertake another rearguard action like they did at Leeds. Despite all that, I'm hoping to see some improvement. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds
Excellent. Spoiled only by the pictures of the Donkey Lashers and Holloway, the Poisoned Dwarf, in the middle.
We have score 3 goals in two games but let in four and there is our problem, the defenders are not keeping clean sheets. Now we have this Isis guy who seems to dominate the midfield so that will stop all these soft attacks and soon we will be on a roll. Onwards and upwards is our motto.
Following John Keohane's logic (pretzel or otherwise), I'm backing us to score today even if our defence let's us down (again?). So it's goal scorers for this one rather than the result. Spread a few bob around between Ramsey @ 8/1 and O'Dowda @ 10/1. Then I thought more about the pretzel. If our defenders can't stop them going in, then maybe it's time for them to pop some in themselves - for us that is. So............it's some small change on McGuinness and Goutas both on 20/1 to do the business. If any one of those 4 get on the scoresheet I'll be fiscally happy.
Cardiff City XI: Alnwick; Romeo, McGuinness, Goutas, Collins; Wintle, Ralls; Bowler, Ramsey, O'Dowda; Ugbo. Subs: Runarsson, Etete, Grant, Adams, Meite, Siopis, Simpson, Tanner, Robinson.
