Cardiff City v Charlton Athletic
3pm Kick-Off
Referee: Patrick Miller (Bedfordshire)IntroductionWith our recent surprise victory over Nottingham Forest, football has once again proven that nothing is certain and that nothing is set in stone, just weeks ago, many fans feared the prospect of relegation back to League One and trips to the likes of Fleetwood and Crawley, yet as is so often the case, just a couple of wins later and the fans (and some of the players) are now looking at the other end of the table and are wondering, just wondering if its not too late to make a late surge for the Play-Offs… Understandably it’s a sentiment that is not shared by the Manager who will surely be looking to consolidate on a roller coaster of a season and surely now the priority should firstly be on finishing as high as possible and secondly preparing and building a squad that can challenge even higher next season… Before all that though and before the players can look forward to their summer holidays there are a few more games to be played, starting with a trip across the Severn Bridge to Wales and
Cardiff City.
The OppositionRelegated from the Premier League last season; Cardiff have certainly struggled this term with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being replaced by a surprise choice in Russell Slade, not much has changed in terms of fortunes though, constantly around mid-table this season, an instant return to the Premier League looks beyond a possibility now with the bluebirds currently in 13th place and one point behind their opponents this Saturday.
Going back though to Boxing Day 2014 and the last time these two sides met… A slow start from Charlton which saw Cardiff lead through Tom Adeyemi before Callum Harriott was sent off for a late tackle on Craig Noone, the Addicks would come out much stronger in the second half and despite being down to 10-men it failed to show, twice Charlton would hit the woodwork before, Johann Gudmundsson would step forward with a screamer of a shot from 25-yards and with just two minutes left on the clock it would ensure that both teams would be able to enjoy the rest of Christmas.
Back to the present day though and back to our chances of another victory this Saturday… Since February, Cardiff themselves have become a bit of a draw specialist with four draws on the bounce with a defeat at home (their last fixture at Cardiff) against Wolves means their last victory in front of a home ground was at the start of January against struggling Fulham.
Player to WatchIn my match preview on Boxing Day I obviously went for David Marshall in the Cardiff goal as a player we had to keep an eye on if we wanted to take all three points, and no doubt our front line will once again have to be at their very best to score past the Scottish ‘keeper… In terms of reunions this Saturday there are no players from Cardiff who will come up against their old side yet Roger Johnson, now of Charlton could make an appearance against the side he joined from Wycombe Wanderers in 2006 making over 110-appearances.
My Player to watch this weekend may be a bit of a surprise, he’s a Striker who has only made seven appearances for the bluebirds and has yet to score, the reason he’s a player we may need to keep an eye on though is because of what he did before he signed for Cardiff City… You could say that
Eoin Doyle is a bit of a late bloomer, at 26 years of age, much of his career has been spent in the Irish Leagues where he caught the eye of Scottish side: Hibernian, he would spent two seasons in Scotland before moving to England and League Two side: Chesterfield, after promotion to League One, Doyle proved he knew where the net is, and prior to moving to Wales, had scored 28-goals in one and a half seasons.
It doesn’t matter which league you play in, the goal is always the same size and in the same place… If Doyle appears for Cardiff this weekend, we need to be sure not to present him with that opportunity.
Line-UpHenderson
Solly – Gomez – Johnson – Fox
Gudmundsson – Buyens – Cousins – Bulot
Watt – Vetokele
Substitutes Bench: Dmitrovic… Bikey… Wiggins… Diarra… Harriott… Church… Ahearne-Grant
PredictionCardiff City 0-2 Charlton Athletic
Comments
COYA!
Igor to score both and make up for his miss in injury time last time round.
Watt scores with an assist from his guardian angel
We are so going to lose now
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It'll be in a different language anyway !
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Cheers - will a taxi be quicker than five minute train (and ten minute walk from station to ground) ?
yes definately loads of taxi's in the centre either by the station or st mary's st (just right of the station) Loads of pubs up st mary's st.
St Mary's St.
Named after a church in the street that washed away in the TSUNAMI in the early 1600's.
A little way up is two small arcades in one of them houses the world's oldest record shop.
Near the top of the street on the right hand side is Cardiff Market which at one point was Cardiff Prison go upstairs and take a look at the small stalls and you can tell it used to be a prison. Walk through the market and go out onto the other side you will see a pathway between two small green spaces, on the floor is numbers where prisoners were buried around the turn of the 20th century.
If you want to walk to the ground have some beers in st marys st walk up to the castle and turn left it will take about 20/25 minutes and should be a pleasureable walk. If you walk on the castle side you will see animals in stone on the wall. Many years ago they wanted a zoo in the castle grounds but the council said no so they put numerous exotic animals on top of the wall.
Our last visit there saw their promotion party as a draw sent them up. A bit more sombre this time I suspect... It'll be nice to see Cardiff in Blue again though, and as their home strip not their change strip!
I would have Lepoint instead of Church on bench.
Bulot Cousins Buyens JBG
Fox Johnson Gomez Solly
..............Hendo
Dimi Bikey Wilson Diarra Lepoint Eagles Church
If JBG unfit it has to be Eagles for me Wit Harriott coming onto the bench.. Wouldn't mind Diarra starting with cousins but happy with Buyens!!
If no Solly then Bikey to start and Gomez to Rb... and I suppose Onyewu onto the bench!
2:0 to the addick's and the talk of the playoffs continues!!
On my own.
At my age.
What was I thinking?!
Got to catch a train back to Southampton from Cardiff Central at 5.30pm - Am I being a tad optimistic?
Anyhoo, got to make the most of those fleeting times when your team is playing great football, scoring goals and winning games.
3-1 to Cardiff then.
Henderson
Solly, Gomez, Johnson, Fox
JBG, Cousins, Diarra, Bulot
Watt, Vet
With the possible exception of TBH with Wiggins in for Fox that looks like our best team on paper to me.
Relatively comfortable 2-1 victory, Vet and Watt.
I am loving the football too but I thought Watt and Igor started to tire on Tuesday night and I can see Lenny Luzon trying some of that rotation nonsense.
Unconvincing 1-1 draw with much changed team but a major spanking for Blackburn on Saturday.
Crouching tiger hidden drag-queen.