Cardiff v Reading Preview

Posted on | January 2, 2009 | No Comments

Last season’s FA Cup finalists Cardiff have a tricky tie to start this year’s competition, although they’ll know plenty about opponents Reading having only just played them a couple of weeks ago. That game ended 1-1, but with Steve Coppell claiming that he is to give some fringe players ago the Bluebirds may feel as though they could be favourites this time around.

Cardiff and Barnsley set this competition alight last season with both representing the Championship and bringing the magic back. Cardiff came ever so close to getting their hands on the trophy after narrowly losing 1-0 to Portsmouth in the final and while such a scenario seems unlikely to happen again, Dave Jones may have something else to celebrate with his side on course for a play off finish this season. Compared to past campaigns, the Bluebirds have a much stronger squad at their disposal and now sit in 4^th position. However, with star striker Michael Chopra returning to his parent club Sunderland and the likes of Joe Ledley linked with moves elsewhere, it’s going to be a massive test to keep this sort of form going.

Reading are another club performing superbly at the moment and Steve Coppell’s men currently sit in 2^nd place – although it’s only their superior goal difference that is keeping them up there instead of Birmingham. However, while Coppell will probably be contempt with this season so far, he won’t be happy with recent results. They’ve drawn their last two games and even though one of those was against the high flying Bluebirds, Coppell will still see the return as points lost. He’s gone on record saying that he’ll be making wholesale changes for Saturday which seemingly suggests that he doesn’t hold the competition in high regard and would much prefer to concentrate on the Royal’s league campaign.

It’s not been a good week for Cardiff leading up to this fixture with two of their most prized assets being taken away from them. Both Michael Chopra and Wayne Routledge have been recalled by their parent clubs meaning the Bluebirds have lost two of their big attacking options. However, striker Ross McCormack could return from a hamstring injury, giving Dave Jones at least some leeway. As for Reading, nobody quite knows what Steve Coppell has in mind. The Royals boss says he is going to give a lot of fringe players a game, with Leroy Lita and Graeme Murty both tipped for starts.

Had this been a league game, we’d have given much more weighting towards a Reading victory. However, Steve Coppell’s statements about chopping and changing his squad for this encounter do not bode well and we fully expect Cardiff to take advantage and progress to the next round – 3-1 prediction.

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