Cardiff v Sheffield United Preview
Posted on | March 21, 2009 | No Comments
This televised Sunday match features two sides who will be confident of securing a play off position come the end of the season. Cardiff currently lie in 6th place while the Blades are just one place above them in 5th – although with the home side having a game in hand over their opponents as well, this is a vital game for both clubs.
Cardiff’s form of late has been very impressive with the Bluebirds just having one blip after losing 2-0 away to Norwich a couple of weeks ago. However, they’ve recorded plenty of victories recently and having beaten the likes of Watford, Doncaster and Barnsley in the last few weeks, they’ve given themselves an excellent chance of securing a top six place. As it stands, they’re in 6th place with sixty three points from thirty seven games. However, all of the sides below them who are battling for the play offs have played three games more, meaning it looks almost a foregone conclusion that Dave Jones’ men will finish up there.
Sheffield United’s form in recent weeks has also been promising, although Kevin Blackwell probably won’t be too happy with the amount of draws his side are getting. The Blades are unbeaten in their last six league games although having drawn three of those; Blackwell may feel they should have collected a few more points. Still, the form has been good enough to keep them in the play offs and just like Cardiff, it looks unlikely for them to be knocked out of those spots come the end of the season. They are level on points with the Bluebirds and having also just played the one game more, they have plenty of games in hand over sides currently out of the top six. With that, United look like another side who’ll definitely be having a season that lasts a little longer.
On the team news front, things finally seem to be looking up for the Bluebirds with Dave Jones just having two problems coming into this one. Both Paul Parry and Mark Kennedy are doubts as knee and hamstring problems threaten to keep them out. As for the visitors, it’s all good news for Kevin Blackwell. The Blades boss has Danny Webber, Nick Montgomery and Greg Halford available after injury and illness hit the trio earlier in the week. Having comfortably beaten Derby in their last game though, it’s thought that Blackwell will keep changes to a minimum.
As for a prediction, we’re going to go for the Cardiff victory. The Bluebirds have strengthened immensely this season and on paper, they are probably more superior to Sheffield United anyway. We think their attacking talent will be too much for the Blades to handle and with that, we’ll go for the 2-0 home win.
Related posts:
- Sheffield United v Cardiff Preview
- Sheffield Wednesday v Sheffield United Preview
- Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday Preview
- Sheffield United v Norwich Preview
- Watford v Sheffield United Preview
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