A famous old fixture this, Villa are the side we beat to win promotion to the First Division (old), and also the last team we played before relegation! Our old boy Leighton Phillips left us to join Villa, and did well for them. Andreas Weimann joins fellow Aston Villa forward Gabriel Agbonlahor on the sidelines after suffering a hamstring injury at West Ham last weekend. Left-backs Antonio Luna and Joe Bennett remain out, but Fabian Delph should return after illness. Denmark striker Andreas Cornelius has returned to training with Cardiff after a long-standing ankle injury but will not be risked. Manager Malky Mackay has no fresh injury concerns, but now and again he gets a sore toe, but nothing to worry about...just a little baddie!! MATCH PREVIEW Back in 1998, Paul Lambert and Malky Mackay were team-mates at Celtic for a few months, though they only actually started one league game together, the 5-0 Parkhead drubbing of Dunfermline on the opening day of the 1998-99 season. It's a game only memorable to most for an outstanding Craig Burley hat-trick, probably memorable to Mackay because he scored the fifth goal of the game, and memorable to absolutely no-one else except me because it was my first ever commentary for Radio 5 Live having joined from Lawro: "Aston Villa need to start winning at home against the teams in the bottom half of the table otherwise they are going to be dragged down there themselves. "If they beat Cardiff and the other teams in the bottom eight then they will stay out of trouble. The pair will no doubt put aside a few minutes for a private chat over old times and new challenges, whatever the result may be. I'm sure that a discussion of the relative merits of their clubs' owners would be an interesting one; Randy Lerner and Vincent Tan sound like very different people. Mackay can do no wrong in the eyes of the Cardiff fans, and rightly so. He has handled the entirely unnecessary recent disruption at the club with a certain style, but I doubt that he'll be willing to countenance much more interfering from Mr Tan, who seems to have confused managing the club with managing the team. Randy Lerner continues to be about the lowest profile owner in the game through what has been a difficult few years for the club. It's been a tough few weeks as well; four games without scoring have followed the unexpected win over Manchester City and points continue to come in only a trickle from home games. In 2013, Villa have taken just 13 points from 14 games at home and 21 points from 14 games away. You can look at this two ways, either to shake your head at a feeble home tally or to be impressed by a healthy away haul; either way, Lambert is sick of discussing it. MATCH FACTS Head-to-head This is the first Premier League meeting between the two clubs, and the first in the top flight since a 2-2 draw at Villa Park in May 1962. Villa were victorious the last time the teams met - knocking the Bluebirds out of the League Cup with a 1-0 home win in September 2009. The last league meeting was in April 1975; Villa were 2-0 winners at Villa Park and went on to earn promotion to the old First Division, while Cardiff were relegated. Cardiff have not won at Villa in the last 11 meetings since a 2-0 top-flight victory in December 1954 (D2, L9). Aston Villa Villa have conceded the opening goal in seven of their Premier League fixtures this season, the joint highest figure in the division. They have only won 10 of their last 43 league fixtures at Villa Park (42pts) and not kept a clean sheet in the last 16. Lambert has won more away league games (seven) as manager of Aston Villa than he has at Villa Park (six). It is six hours and 15 minutes without a goal for Villa since Andreas Weimann's winner against City on 28 September. Villa are also without a win in four games. Cardiff City Cardiff are the only side in the Premier League yet to lead a game at half-time this season. They have earned back-to-back clean sheets for the first time since April. Sunday's derby hero Steven Caulker has now scored as many goals in 10 Premier League outings for Cardiff (two) as he did in 44 for Spurs and Swansea. Influential playmaker Peter Whittingham began his career at Aston Villa, making 67 league and cup appearances.
Hope the damned stream is good today, feel we can take all 3 points if the guys are at the top of their game. Even fancy a clean sheet given villa impotence in front of goal recently. Hope that doesn't come back and bite me in the ass!
Cardiff City: Marshall, Taylor, Caulker (C), Turner, Whittingham, Medel, Odemwingie, Gunnarsson, Cowie, Theophile-Catherine, Bellamy. Subs: Lewis, Hudson, Campbell, Kim, Noone, Mutch, Maynard. Aston Villa: Guzan, Bacuna, Vlaar, Clark, Baker, El Ahmadi, Westwood, Sylla, Tonev, Benteke, Kozak. Subs: Steer, Helenius, Herd, Bowery, Lowton, Johnson, Robinson.
Nothing coming off for Odem - pretty bloody hopeless to be honest - and Gunnar looks like he's got lead in his boots. Fraizer and Mutch on for both before long please Malky, and let's win this one!
Let's be honest here, we never looked like scoring and despite us having more possession they always looked the more dangerous.
No complaints on the first goal. Their second could have been avoided. A poor match and we gave away possession way to easily again. Need to cut out the unforced errors, there were a few last week but I think a lot more this week. We obviously struggled when they picked up the pace and luckily that wasn't too often. Next wo games will be interesting but I hope we don't get too embarrassed
