Championship leaders Burnley could be unchanged for the visit of Cardiff. Defender Ben Mee has recovered from a back problem and striker Ashley Barnes (knee) is fit again after a long injury absence. Cardiff are hoping defender Matthew Connolly is well enough to play after being sidelined because of illness on Saturday. Manager Russell Slade has no fresh injury concerns, though defender Ben Turner (knee) is still sidelined. MATCH FACTS Burnley are winless in 11 against Cardiff City, drawing eight and losing three. Cardiff haven't won at Burnley since May 1988 (D7 L6), but have drawn each of their last five at Turf Moor. The Clarets are currently riding a 16-game unbeaten streak, which is the second-longest in the Championship this season (Brighton previously went 21 unbeaten). Cardiff have lost just one of their previous six league games (W4 D1).
No Whitts is on the bench. Baffling decision. We had zero ball retention ability at Reading and were terrible. Still in Slade we trust
Trust in Slade Blue, there will be method in his 'erm...madness pal! A cheeky 1-0 for the magnificence that is Cardiff City eh? Got me scratching my todger though...thought Dick had gone to a sunny place!
Holding on for a nil nil draw atm. A very good point if we can get to the finish line Both Owls and Rams are winning.
Good result tonight me thinks, Wonder if Fulhams away win tonight, taking them away from the drop danger zone, make the trip to craven cottage a bit easier
Agreed, a good result and in most circumstances we would be happy with that. However, we have fallen further behind the 2 teams above us and those losses at Rotherham and MK Dons and the surrender of 2 goal leads to Burnley and the Wendies at home are now costing us dear. An extra 4 or even 6 points from those to games would see us in a much stronger position. Sods law, Fulham have now found a bit of form with Ross starting to score regularly again. Craven Cottage will be a tough place on Saturday with Fulham virtually safe so no pressure on them, when nothing other than a win for us will do. I don't see us making the playoffs but, all things considered, it has been a much better season overall and if we can keep our good guys, get rid of the marginal to no use ones and get in up to 6 players to improve the squad then we could easily be in with a great shout for the play offs, at least, next season
From the highlights it appeared to be wave after wave of Burnley attacks. A point very much indebited to some good Marshall saves. Feel we'll have to win all 4 of our next fixtures to be on with a shot of reaching the playoffs. Fulham have blown hot and cold so not sure how easy it will be to win there. Brentford away also looks thought but you'd think we'd beat QPR and Bolton, who have little to play for
Despite optimistic predictions (including me), a point up there was a very good result. On the face of it looks like the defensive tactic of playing fat arse Dikgacoi paid off but in the clips of the game I've seen so far he looked incredibly slow and unfit. I'll take the point but bringing him in for Whitts snuffed out any sort of ambition to create a winning scenario. It was always on the cards that Sheff Wed would turn over Blackburn, but if Conway hadn't got himself sent off it could well have finished differently. Derby stuffing Hull 4-0 was the surprise for me. I was hoping that Bruce's boys would have taken at least a point off them to keep the gap down. Even after just last night's results I must admit that the playoffs look to be slipping away. With 6 games left we are playing catch up and more single point results will not close that gap. Maybe Burnley was the wrong place to try it, but we need to go away to win it not draw.
Saw a few of the lads who travelled kicking off about how biased the 'highlights' were. I listened on 5 live and other than Marshall's couple of late saves we were the team far more likely to win. The introduction of Zahore seemed to really cause them issues. From what I listened to it sounded like Slade's tactics were perfect. We kept it tight then got into the game, made a couple of changes and were trying for the win. We were the width of the cross bar away from taking that win too. We can't control what others do as Derby showed last night. 4 points from them and Burnley is a great effort and whilst a 4 point gap looks serious it can be down to a point over 1 weekend. We need to win our matches but so do all the other ****ers! There's a lot of football to play. If we do fall short it won't be the point at Burnley that let us down and they're lots of reasons to be optimistic for next season imo
Fair play to the players who sounded like they gave everything. I'll say it again, those dropped points months ago are now coming back to haunt us. We just don't seem to get the breaks; look at SW last night. Losing then get an OG and a sending off. What do we get? Penalty against us for hitting Connollys head at Bham, hitting woodwork at Charlton, Reading, Burnley & v Leeds etc. Derby will beat Bolton so have to win at Fulham which will be a massive game now, Ross is so due a goal against us
You can't turn the clock back but if the introduction of Zohore caused them problems, then perhaps he should have been brought on earlier than the 83rd minute or even started. With 4 and 5 point gaps to Derby and Wednesday as well as them having massively superior goal differences to us which effectively makes it 5 and 6 points, they don't have to win them but we do. The one saving grace may be that Derby and Wednesday have still to play each other so someone is going to drop points - Derby also still have to go to Brighton. It sounds like glass half empty time again from me especially after just taking 4 points from serious top 6 clubs but we still need one of them to slip up on the run in no matter what we do. All we can do is try to maximise what we can achieve because the other stuff is out of our hands.
Whatever happens, it's gone a lot better than we expected and maybe sown some positive seeds for next season. Zohore is clearly a better player than the previous Danish pastry and now needs a goal to give him some confidence. If Pilks is unfit for Saturday after last night's knee injury then Zohore must get a start at Fulham and let us see what he can do in whole game rather than an impact sub.
Pilks injury is not serious. Don't you think the approach will be different v Fulham than last night? I suspect Whitts will be back.
