Well, here we are again. Following last weekend’s rather frustrating draw away at Stoke, we return to the CCS to face what appears to be the sternest of tests as we welcome the Blades of Sheffield to the Capital. Last weekend saw us on the brink of picking up our first away win of the season, only to see a late, late equaliser once again quash our hopes and see 2 precious points snatched from our grasp at the death. As a result of that late slip, we could (thanks to the fixture scheduling) see ourselves back below the dreaded dotted line come 3pm Saturday. Still, we have a game in hand over a few teams so it’s not all doom and gloom eh? Plus I hear one or two of our more senior fans are still smarting from our cup final defeat at the hands of the Blades, so revenge could be the order of the day! The Blades squad, freshly picked off the shelves of their Amazon warehouse Who Are You? Sheffield Utd whose nickname of ‘The Blades’ of course arose thanks to the areas historic association with steel (and cutlery manufacturing) currently lead the way in the Championship following a brief ‘Cardiff like’ stay in the Premier League last season. The Blades are managed by ‘home boy’ Chris Wilder (who is in his 2nd stint as manager at Bramall Lane), who took over from Paul Heckingbottom (aye, the same manager that saw his out of form Preston side roll us over at the CCS) when Utd were rooted firmly to the bottom of the Premier League table just prior to Christmas last season. Much to Blades fans disappointment, the return of Wilder failed to turn around their fortunes and relegation ensued. This year the Yorkshire outfit have gotten off to a much, much better start with them having suffered just 2 defeats in the league so far this season (back to back defeats in October away at both Middlesbrough and Leeds) and currently sitting top of the tree, 4 points clear of Burnley in 3rd, so they are guaranteed to be in the top 2 at the very least come Christmas day. With his better start this year, Wilder now has a win rate of 36.73% during this spell with his boyhood team – we can only expect that number to increase as the season wears on. As you can imagine, as a newly relegated team their squad is full of quality players at this level, including several familiar Welsh faces in ‘our’ Kieffer, goalkeeper Adam Davies and defender Rhys Norrington-Davies. Current top scorer is former Stoke player Tyrese Campbell (6 goals in 14 games) and he is ably assisted by 2 ex-Coventry players in the form of the exceptional Gus Hamer and former Jack Grealish lookalike (and fall-alike) Callum O’Hare. Defensively, with players like Aussie International Harry Souttar (on loan from Leicester), Alfie Gilchrist and England U-21 International Jesurun Rak-Sakyi (on loan from Palace) in fine form (only 11 goals against all season, 2nd only to Burnley) the task for our misfiring forwards looks daunting to say the least. Rumour has it that we tried to sign Ethan Hunt (a.k.a. Tom Cruise) as a free agent given our forwards injuries but even he thought it was going to be a mission too impossible even for him! Ethan Hunt arrives for training only to vanish mysteriously 20 minutes later after Ken Choo's Vauxhall Viva blew up in the car park. Last Time Out & Form Last time out saw the Bluebirds slip to a rather painful 4-1 reverse at Bramall Lane, a result which saw the Blades push ever closer to their promotion to the Premier League in the season before last. Loan Bluebird Sory Kaba (oh how we could do with him back now) took his tally to five goals in seven games for City when he gave us a surprise lead from the penalty spot following a high boot on Jack Simpson in the box, but Man City loanee James McAtee levelled with an impressive solo goal, before a spectacular diving header from Jack Robinson made it 2-1 to the home side. City sub and part time balloon artist Connor Wickham struck the woodwork as we chased for an equaliser, but Iliman Ndiaye added a third after a defensive lapse by City, before Ciaran Clark prodded in from a yard out to take the game away from then gaffer Sabri Lamouchi's relegation-threatened side. Form wise, as has been mentioned, things look ominous for the Bluebirds. The Blades are now unbeaten in 10 games, with their last defeat coming away at the Riverside back on 23rd October. Their last 6 has resulting 14 points from a possible 18 being picked up. They also boast the 2nd best defence in the division together with the 5th best attack (30 goals scored in 21 games). We’re actually without a win in 5 games v the Blades, having lost each of our last 4 against them since a 2-0 win in 2017. Given how we’ve struggled against other poor teams in recent weeks what odds on us repeating an unexpected triumph like the one against Norwich, wouldn’t that just be so typical of City?? In, Out Or No Sign Of Them About So, this week isn’t so much a question of who will Omer Riza pick as it is a question of who is left fit following an improved (but still not quite good enough) showing last weekend. The news emanating from Sloper Road is nearly all negative, with Ollie Tanner still not fit after his injury, Perry Ng also at least another week away too plus now rookie striker Michael Reindorf has picked up an ankle injury during training. Dave Turnbull’s injury is rumoured to be season ending and Isaak Davies still not back training with the 1st team (though he is now running on the pitch). Combine this with the rumour that Callum Robinson’s Achilles issues are resurfacing and our other longer term absentees (Rambo, Etete and the slowly returning Tsunoda) we really are starting to look like we’re down to the bare bones again. I do however wonder if Robinson was being held back for this one and could we see the return of Rubin Colwill? Predicted Starting 11 Alnwick Chambers Daland Goutas Rinomhota O’Dowda Robertson Siopis Robinson Colwill Meite The Odds Bods This guy was apparently on the brink of coming back to us, but a discrete ‘payment’ was apparently missed at our end and so the deal fell through. In all honesty I’m amazed the odds on the Blades aren’t shorter than they are – bet Sparkey is tempted by the home win though this week?? Match Day Melody In homage to the man above, and given how much we have missed him since he went (and now have to try wreck his new colleagues dreams)… Blooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds!!! Merry Christmas to all my fellow Bluebirds!! Let's hope it truly is a time of miracles.
Great thread again Brizzo....... Those aren't very generous odds Brizzo - they flatter City. Having said that, you can get 8/1 for a City win with a one goal handicap ....... I must admit I did have £40 @ 11/4 on City winning at Stoke. I had 150 quid in the bloody bank with a minute left until that Alnwick rush of blood....
I blame myself Sparks, after I made reference to their keeper's generosity and how Alnwick should follow suit... I think he got the wrong end of the stick!! I'm not usually defeatist but I think this one is well beyond us at the moment. If we take anything out of it we'll have done well.
Just looking through the offers on Champ games tomorrow on B365. If you're looking for a long shot (and I've not seen these odds on a Champ game before) Oxford Utd with Rowett just appointed as manager are on offer at 18/1 to win at Leeds. Now I just wonder.........
Wonderful stuff Brizzle Seasons Greetings to you and yours. This game has the potential to be carnage but without Ng we might be limited to scoring 5. Bloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobirds
It was the 5.1 defeat at Bramall Lane in April 1970 that bugged me. Killed promotion. We had stuffed them 3.0 at a very cold and icey Ninian in the January.
Not splitting hairs with you BfB but it was 1971 and it was painful. Our season collapsed with Division One in our sights. That home defeat to Watford did us in and after the Sheff U stuffing, a Malcom MacDonald hat trick for Luton rubbed salt into the wound
Results from the 1970-71 season. Lives long in the memory ending in great disappointment. If only we hadn't sold Toshack....................... 1 Leicester City 0–1 Cardiff City 22 August 19702 Cardiff City 2–2 Millwall 26 August 19703 Sheffield Wednesday 1–2 Cardiff City 29 August 19704 Bristol City 1–0 Cardiff City 2 September 19705 Cardiff City 1–1 Sheffield United 5 September 19706 Cardiff City 2–0 Birmingham City 12 September 19707 Bolton Wanderers 0–2 Cardiff City 19 September 19708 Cardiff City 1–1 Norwich City 26 September 19709 Orient 0–0 Cardiff City 3 October 197010 Cardiff City 3–4 Middlesbrough 10 October 197011 Watford 0–1 Cardiff City 17 October 197012 Cardiff City 2–2 Leicester City 24 October 197013 Carlisle United 1–1 Cardiff City 28 October 197014 Cardiff City 1–0 Portsmouth 31 October 197015 Cardiff City 5–1 Hull City 7 November 197016 Queens Park Rangers 0–1 Cardiff City 14 November 197017 Cardiff City 4–1 Blackburn Rovers 21 November 197018 Charlton Athletic 2–1 Cardiff City 28 November 197019 Cardiff City 0–0 Luton Town 5 December 197020 Oxford United 1–0 Cardiff City 12 December 197021 Cardiff City 3–1 Sunderland 19 December 197022 Millwall 2–1 Cardiff City 26 December 197023 Cardiff City 1–1 Swindon Town 9 January 197124 Cardiff City 4–0 Sheffield Wednesday 16 January 197125 Portsmouth 1–3 Cardiff City 6 February 197126 Cardiff City 1–0 Oxford United 13 February 197127 Sunderland 0–4 Cardiff City 20 February 197128 Cardiff City 1–1 Charlton Athletic 27 February 197129 Hull City 1–1 Cardiff City 6 March 197130 Cardiff City 4–0 Carlisle United 13 March 197131 Blackburn Rovers 1–1 Cardiff City 20 March 197132 Cardiff City 1–0 Queens Park Rangers 27 March 197133 Birmingham City 2–0 Cardiff City 3 April 197134 Cardiff City 1–0 Bristol City 7 April 197135 Cardiff City 1–0 Bolton Wanderers 10 April 197136 Swindon Town 2–2 Cardiff City 13 April 197137 Middlesbrough 1–1 Cardiff City 17 April 197138 Cardiff City 0–1 Watford 24 April 197139 Norwich City 1–2 Cardiff City 27 April 197140 Sheffield United 5–1 Cardiff City 1 May 197141 Cardiff City 1–0 Orient 4 May 197142 Luton Town 3–0 Cardiff City
But in those days the gap between divisions was smaller! The sheer disappointment that night seeing the result was awful!!
.........and I see we're at Norwich last game of the season with both of us probably needing to win for a place in the playoffs.............
Heading over shortly to make the treacherous journey across the bridge.... I'm apologising now because I've only been to 2 games before today and we lost both. If we lose again today I fully accept culpability for it.
TEAM NEWS Cardiff City XI: Alnwick; Rinomhota, Goutas, Chambers, Daland, Bagan; Siopis, Robertson; El Ghazi, Meite, Willock. Subs: Horvath, Fish, Kanga, Colwill, T. Davies, Kpakio, Ashford, Robinson, Perrett.
Youngsters on the bench - Tom Davies, Kpakio, Ashford and Perrett. You wanted 'em, now you got 'em.........
