The Bluebirds return to their nest this weekend following a sadly disappointing result (and in some respects performance) on Wednesday night away at Luton when, for the first time in 7 games we tasted the bitter pill of defeat. The result was only the club's second defeat in eight matches under Omer Riza but does mean we are now sitting just outside of the division's bottom three on goal difference. Things could have been different had Anwar El Ghazi made more of his early opportunity but Luton just edged what was a tight game in the end. We now turn to an early kick off (12:30) back on home turf in front of the Sky cameras and where we welcome our visitors from Lancashire, Blackburn Rovers. Hoping they can't see the wood for the trees come Saturday! Who Are You? One of the ‘founding’ clubs, Blackburn Rovers have a fairly rich history and honours list having been league champions on 3 occasions and FA Cup winners 6 times, with that last league title being under the stewardship of the much-revered Jack Walker in the 1994-95 season, some 81 years after their previous table topping exploits. Sadly for Rovers fans, they’ve not tasted top flight football since dropping into the 2nd tier at the end of the 2011-12 season, even spending a single season in League 1 for 2017-2018. Managed by John Eustace (who took up the reins in February of this year), the club have struggled to make any kind of impact in the division in that time. Eustace has a win % of a little over 27% having recorded 9 wins in 33 games as gaffer. He was of course notoriously dispensed of by Birmingham City in the early part of last season despite leading the Blues into the play-off spots, a move which I’m sure all Bluenoses regret massively given that his replacement oversaw a nosedive towards League 1 thereafter! The Rovers squad has some decent names within it, so us Bluebirds should perhaps expect a tight contest against them. At the back, Danny Batth (formerly of Norwich) and Dom Hyam appear a relatively decent partnership, though it seems defensive regular Hayden Carter could be out for the rest of the calendar year due to needing knee surgery after an injury sustained in a 0-0 with WBA. Promising Welsh youngster Owen Beck, on loan from Liverpool has seen a few appearances too. In midfield they have ex-Wurzel Andy Weimann, who brings a little bit of guile, together with the hard working (and apparent former Bluebird target) Todd Cantwell. Up front, current top scorer Yuki Ohashi, a summer signing from Sanfrecce Hiroshima has 5 goals in his 14 appearances (8 starts). Incidentally, a certain Mr Rudy Gestede is also their head of football operations! Last Time Out & Form Last time out saw the Bluebirds play out a fairly drab 0-0 with our visitors at the CCS. Gong into the game City were on a run of 6 defeats in 7 and Blackburn only had 1 win in 11, so confidence was low and morale probably even lower. Statistically Cardiff had the better of it with 11 shots registered with 5 of those deemed to be on target, whereas Blackburn registered just 4 shots with a solitary 1 classed as hitting the mark, our visitors though did edge the possession stats. The majority of City’s chances fell to Karlan Grant but no breakthrough was able to be made and the Bluebirds had to be grateful to Ethan Horvath for saving the best chance of the game which just happened to be the single effort on target from Blackburn. Current form screams that Blackburn need to be grateful with their fast start to the season. With just a single win in the last 6 (coming at home against Swansea 3 weeks ago) they are in real danger of sliding down a very congested looking table. Scoring seems to have become a bit of an issue with them having netted just twice in this 6 game period. With an average rate of >1 goal per game being conceded in that period too, it suggests some real issues are forming for Rovers right now (almost sounds reminiscent of our start!), though in saying that, manager John Eustace claimed their most recent 2-0 home defeat was their best performance since he’s been at the club! In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About Following the defeat to Luton and given the tired manner of the performance I fully anticipate there being a change or two to be made by Omer Riza. Callum Robinson continues to be plagued by an Achilles issue but could well start again, whilst Alex Robertson is likely to return after missing the last 2 games with a slight hamstring problem. I suspect we could see El Ghazi drop to the bench for this game given his continued slow progress, potentially seeing Chris Willock come in instead. Despite having an off night on Wednesday, Ollie Tanner will probably retain his starting spot after amassing quite a bit of credit for his previous performances. Both Kion Etete and Isaak Davies are making good progress, Etete especially who played with the U-21’s this week and managing to pick up a goal. Could that see him garb a place on the bench this weekend perhaps? Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Ng Chambers Goutas O’Dowda Tanner Colwill Turnbull Robertson Robinson Willock The Odds Bods What has a former Bluebird and Masky getting the snip got in common? Both lead you to think of people getting up to surprising things involving choppers! Take it away Mr Conway… Top Boy Top Trumps Having mentioned young Owen Beck earlier, I figured it’s worth comparing one promising youngster with another, so it’s Wales v Ireland in the young gun defensive fun... Their records are remarkably similar, though Beck edges the defensive side on this occasion. Match Day Melody So, as he take us into another International break, and having seen an upturn in fortunes under him, I’m guessing Vincent Tan will be thinking we’ve had….. Question is, will Mr Riza be counting himself lucky soon? Surely we need to give credit where credit is Jew? Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!!
Good one Brizzle! Unfortunately, I am going to miss this one as I have to be in Aberystwyth, but will be thinking of the boys.
Thanks as always Brizzle for a mighty fine read. I'm not going to Aberystwyth tomorrow but regrettably, I still won't be there. I'm such an armchair fan... especially with it being on Sky . Hope we can maintain our recent home form. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds.
A fine report once again BB given the situation you find yourself in, but let me remind you pal, Masky does the humour on here.....no offence intended! Masky Of Llandaff
Hmm, no Robnson. So no 9. No Chambers in the squad. Going to struggle at RB if Ng gets injured. We've now got 2 LBs on the bench when we could have picked a more forward orientated player. Cardiff City XI: Alnwick; Ng, Goutas, Daland, O'Dowda; Robertson, Turnbull; Tanner, Colwill, Willock; El Ghazi. Subs: Horvath, Fish, Bagan, Collins, Siopis, Rinomhota, Ashford, Meite, Kanga.
Daland for Chambers fine. Also either he or Fish can play rb if Ng goes off. Robinson = big loss however.
Blackburn far sharper passing - we look so slow. Badly missing Robbo up front as moving target for Turnbull/Robertson to find. O'Dowda looks the pick but he's just about on his own out there. Standby for the Kanga/Meite onslaught.
What is the deal with this ref? Cantwell not even allowed to fall over his own feet without it being classed as a foul by us now? Blackburn's goals were well worked, we're huffing and puffing but we don't have a cutting edge or instinctive finisher sadly.
Ah. Damn it. Not sure that should have counted though. Came back from an offside position after the ball was played.
