First time on the road in the cup

The good fortune had to end sometime, and the home draws have certainly helped us to get this far in the competition where we are just one game away from reaching the last eight.

Keith Treacy - a reprieve?

Cardiff away wasn't considered to be the best of draws, it was thought by many to be as bad as it could have been.

I've always preferred not to be drawn against clubs from our own division. We play them twice as it is and it's better to get some different teams. This competition has been good to us in that respect in recent years and this is the first time we will have met a team from our own division since we beat Wolves on penalties in the second round seven years ago.

Thankfully we head for South Wales on the back of a win which was just what was needed after the two disappointing performances and results against Reading and Barnsley, and maybe being away is no bad think, it's where we've found three of our league wins thus far this season and eight of our fourteen league wins in 2011 have come on the road, a complete reversal given that we'd only won four in the previous two years.

Eddie Howe has admitted that a couple of players are struggling with injury, and he's also without Junior Stanislas. He's this season's Steven Thompson having played for West Ham in an early round and finding himself cup tied.

I think that will mean a reprieve for Keith Treacy who will get another start with Charlie Austin coming into the starting line up and it would be no surprise to see Ben Mee get a recall from the start in the centre of defence with Howe clearly not happy with Andre Amougou.

It's seven subs too tonight and that's a test for us with our limited numbers. I doubt Alex-Ray Harvey will be involved but Wes Fletcher could be, although the manager did seem to doubt that in an interview. He did, however, confirm that youth players Steven Hewitt and Shay McCartan would be in the squad.

We could line up: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs from: Jon Stewart, Andre Amougou, Dean Marney, Steven Hewitt, Alex MacDonald, Dominic Knowles, Zavon Hines, Shay McCartan, Wes Fletcher.

Our Opponents - Cardiff City

You could be forgiven if you were expecting a lot of goals tonight. Cardiff's last two games have produced no less than 15 of them. They were beaten last Tuesday 4-3 at Peterborough and followed that up with a 5-3 home win against Barnsley on Saturday.

That Barnsley win ended a run of three games without a win and only one win in seven for them, but they do sit just one point off the play offs in the Championship.

But tonight is cup football and, like us, Cardiff have had an interesting run this season in the Carling Cup.

We beat Burton and Barnet in extra time and only an 89th minute Amougou goal prevented the MK Franchise game going into an extra half an hour.

Cardiff have bettered that. All three of their Carling Cup games this season have gone to extra time with the last one going to penalties.

They beat Oxford 3-1 away in the first round, saw off Huddersfield 5-3 in the second and in the last round had a 7-6 penalties win against Sven Goran Eriksson's Leicester after a 2-2 draw.

With Mackay is expected to change things round from the team that played on Saturday, and he's confirmed that neither of the two forwards Kenny Miller and Rudy Gestede will play. Miller has a facial injury that required no less than 20 stitches whilst Gestede has a hamstring problem.

Previous League Cup Encounters

Four goal Taffy

Tonight will be the fourth time we've met Cardiff in this competition but we have to go back 38 years to the last occasion. We've done OK too with three wins.

We travelled to Ninian Park in the inaugural season of the League Cup on 24th October 1960, 51 years ago yesterday. It was our first ever game in the competition and we won it 4-0 with a Gordon Harris hat trick and one from John Connelly.

Gordon Harris was on the mark again seven years later, this time at Turf Moor. Like the previous game it was in the second round and Bomber scored a penalty in a 2-1 win that saw Frank Casper score a late winner.

The 1973/74 season saw our last meeting, and again it was in the second round. Leighton James twice gave us the lead at Ninian Park but it ended all square at 2-2 but we got through in extra time in the replay.

Ray Hankin scored first before Cardiff equalised and at 90 minutes the score was 1-1. James scored a penalty in the first minute of extra time, Cardiff equaliser, also from a penalty, two minutes later, but with ten minutes remaining James got his fourth goal of the tie to take us through.

Taffy got a great deal of satisfaction from those goals. He has strong feelings for Cardiff City. They are similar to mine for Blackburn Rovers.

Previous Games against Cardiff City

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