Nottingham Forest v Cardiff Preview

Posted on | October 24, 2008 | No Comments

Morale couldn’t be any lower at the City Ground following a truly dismal start to Championship life by Forest, while Cardiff are a side that’s quietly climbed the league and now find themselves in the play offs. In theory it should be a straightforward game for the Bluebirds but as recent seasons have shown, nothing should be taken for granted in this division.

It seems hard to believe just how badly Forest have coped with life in this division. After gaining promotion on the last day of the season, significant funds were handed to Colin Calderwood and he brought in some real quality with the likes of Joe Garner, Andy Cole and Rob Earnshaw arriving over the summer. However, only six points have been amassed so far and with their goal difference already down to -12, there seem to be serious problems at the City Ground. They did manage to muster a 1-1 draw with Ipswich on Tuesday but with the Tractor Boys being just outside the relegation zone themselves, those sorts of fixtures are ones that they should be winning and drastic improvement needs to be made within the next few weeks.

As for Cardiff, they’re a side who has made great progress recently. Despite an inconsistent start, Dave Jones’ men have come into form of late and now find themselves sat in 5th place. They’ve collected eight points from their last four games but perhaps the most pleasing thing for Jones is the form of his strikers. Ross McCormack and Jay Bothroyd were brought in during the summer and while supporters had reservations, both signings look to be paying off. McCormack is one of the division’s top scorers on eight goals while Bothroyd ended his drought recently and has bagged three in his last four appearances. With goal scoring being one of their biggest problems last season, Jones will be hoping these two can carry them to play off glory.

In terms of team news, Colin Calderwood is sweating on the fitness of Rob Earnshaw. The striker, who started his career at Cardiff, is struggling with a hamstring problem and faces a late fitness test. Elsewhere, Julian Bennett will miss out with a broken collarbone – paving the way for loan signing Joel Lynch to make a start. As for Cardiff, Joe Ledley is expected to be put straight back in after recovering from his groin injury. However, Dave Jones will still be missing Tony Capaldi and Riccardo Scimeca, who are out with knee and groin problems respectively.

While Cardiff are in good form at the moment, we’re basing our prediction on the fact that Forest’s bad form cannot go on forever and they must come good soon. We’ll go for the draw – a result which the home side will probably be more likely to accept.

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