|
Cardiff are looking to sustain a promotion push this season. Like the Clarets they started well last season but fell away badly after leading the table in November. Their win against the Clarets at the beginning of November, featured below, saw them three points clear at the top of the league. But from then on they hit relegation form and ended the season in the bottom half of the table.
It is not what is expected with plans for the new stadium, and probably some more fish for chairman Peter Ridsdale, and they are looking to push towards the Premier League this time round. Ridsdale is going to have to go some to convince the home fans and he's been getting some stick recently prompting him to threaten to take his bat and ball home.
On the field, manager Dave Jones made some significant changes to his squad over the summer with no fewer than nine new players joining the club, all but one of them on a permanent basis. There's no doubt which of the signings have created the most interest but when you pair the likes of Robbie Fowler and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink up front it is certain that they are going to grab all the headlines.
Both players are well known to chairman Ridsdale having both played for Leeds, and after a slow start both are now finding the net with eight goals between them in the last five games.
The full list of summer signings is below:
Warren Feeney from Luton (previously at Cardiff on loan)
Gavin Rae from Rangers
Steven MacLean from Sheffield Wednesday
Michael Oakes from Wolves
Trevor Sinclair from Manchester City
Robbie Fowler from Liverpool
Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink from Charlton
Ross Turnbull from Middlesbrough (loan)
After a disappointing start to the season, including three successive home defeats, things have improved since their high profile strikers started scoring. Including a Carling Cup win at West Brom, they have now gone four games without defeat.
Similar to the Clarets they are scoring goals without too much problem but are conceding too many goals. Again, as is the case with ourselves, they have kept only one clean sheet in the league.
Since Cardiff won promotion in 2003 they have won all four games at Ninian Park, scoring eight goals without reply. Our last goals there were in our promotion season of 1999/2000 when Steve Davis and Andy Payton scored in a 2-1 win. It's time we put an end to this poor run.
It is still difficult to believe that Robbie Fowler is playing for Cardiff. At the age of 32 he should still be playing for Liverpool and England. But injuries have had an effect on his career and having been released from his second spell at Liverpool he chose to play his football in the Championship with Cardiff.
|
The Toxteth born Evertonian joined local rivals Liverpool and he was in the first team at the age of 18, and needless to say he scored on his debut in a League Cup tie against Fulham. Two weeks later he scored all five goals as they crushed the London side in the second leg.
His career was one of goals and he scored 120 for Liverpool at better than one every two games in his first spell there before moving to Leeds. Injuries prevented him playing as often as he liked but he was still a goal every other game player, but his stay was shortened because they couldn't afford to pay all his wages and he moved to Manchester City.
He wasn't quite so prolific with City, netting one in four, before he made a nostalgic return to Liverpool in January 2006. He scored just eight times for them in a season and a half before he was released last season, eventually making this move to Cardiff.
He might not be the Robbie Fowler of old, but he's still going to be deadly in front of goal. He rarely misses target and we'll need to be on our toes to ensure he doesn't get too many, if any, chances.
Fowler scored 164 Premiership goals from Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester City. Only three players have scored more since the league was formed in 1992. They are Alan Shearer (261), Andy Cole (188) and Thierry Henry (174).
Cardiff will definitely be without Steven Thompson, Steven MacLean and Ricci Scimeca who are all ruled out with injury. There have been conflicting reports on former England international Trevor Sinclair but it is likely that he will miss out after having had minor knee surgery.
Loan goalkeeper Ross Turnbull has been recalled by Middlesbrough. He's played six of Cardiff's league games this season but he was on the bench on Tuesday at Sheffield United where Michael Oakes played in goal. He'll play again in a Cardiff side that could be unchanged from the one that drew 3-3 at Bramall Lane.
They could line up: Michael Oakes, Kevin McNaughton, Glenn Loovens, Roger Johnson, Tony Capaldi, Paul Parry, Gavin Rae, Stephen McPhail, Joe Ledley, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, Robbie Fowler. Subs from: Darren Purse, Pete Whittingham, Matt Green, Chris Gunter, Darcy Blake, Aaron Ramsey.
Steve Cotterill has been given a much needed boost ahead of the game with Chris McCann back in training ahead of schedule after being stretchered off at Bristol City two weeks ago with a hamstring injury.
McCann came through a training session on Thursday and if there's been no reaction it would be no surprise to see him straight back into the side, probably at the expense of John Spicer who made his first league start on Tuesday since the 2005/06 season.
With Michael Duff now having joined Bes Berisha on the long term injury list Steve Cotterill has been looking to bring in new recruits on loan. He said he'd gone back to a player he'd tried to bring in earlier in the year but believes he doesn't want to join us.
That leaves us with the same squad as was available on Tuesday plus McCann and I expect us to line up: Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Alan Mahon, Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake, Andy Gray. Subs from: Brian Jensen, David Unsworth, John Spicer, James O'Connor, Steve Jones, Ade Akinbiyi, Jon Harley, Joey Gudjonsson.
Cardiff were top when we visited Ninian Park at the beginning of November last year and we were third. It was billed as the match of the day in the Championship as we went defending the Football League's only unbeaten away record.
|
He turned in a scandalous performance with a whole string of strange decisions going in the home side's favour. He even yellow carded Andy Gray for apparently getting on his nerves.
Riccardo Scimeca scored the only goal of the game from Cardiff's only chance and try as we might we just couldn't get the equaliser we so richly deserved. The nearest we came was a Wayne Thomas effort that hit the bar.
That came in a second half that was totally dominated by Burnley, and as we pushed more and more men forward we nearly did concede a second. However, a former Newcastle striker failed to find the target when clean through.
The result took some believing, as did the goings on outside the ground as innocent Burnley fans found themselves attacked by the Cardiff police.
As for this weekend, if we turn in a performance like the one a year ago then I'm certain we'll come home with something. After all Walton's not going to be there.
The teams were;
Cardiff: Neil Alexander, James Chambers, Darren Purse, Glenn Loovens, Kevin McNaughton, Paul Parry (Willo Flood 34), Riccardo Scimeca, Stephen McPhail, Joe Ledley, Kevin Campbell (Roger Johnson 74), Michael Chopra (ex-Newcastle). Subs not used: Mark Howard, Malvin Kamara, Chris Gunter.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Alan Mahon 66), James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams (Kyle Lafferty 82), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Stephen Foster, John Spicer.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1987/88 | 4 | a | 1-2 | 3,401 | Davis |
| . | . | h | 1-2 | 8,421 | Oghani |
1990/91 | 4 | h | 2-1 | 6,348 | Deary Francis |
| . | . | a | 0-3 | 3,591 | . |
1991/92 | 4 | a | 2-0 | 16,030 | Randall Conroy |
| . | . | h | 3-1 | 12,408 | Painter Farrell Conroy |
1993/94 | 1 | h | 2-0 | 11,276 | Philliskirk Francis |
| . | . | a | 1-2 | 5,469 | Davis |
1999/2000 | 2 | h | 2-1 | 9,753 | Armstrong Johnrose |
. | . | a | 2-1 | 6,487 | Davis Payton |
2003/04 | 1 | h | 1-1 | 10,866 | Chaplow |
| . | . | a | 0-2 | 13,525 | . |
2004/05 | C | h | 1-0 | 11,200 | Chaplow |
. | . | a | 0-2 | 11,562 | . |
2005/06 | C | h | 3-3 | 10,431 | Elliott(2) J O'Connor |
| . | . | a | 0-3 | 10,872 | . |
2006/07 | C | a | 0-1 | 15,744 | . |
. | . | h | 2-0 | 11,347 | Jones McVeigh |