Boro V Cardiff (A) 1-0

[align=center]Cardiff City v Middlesbrough

Cardiff City Stadium

16/09/14

19:45

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Introduction

Unfortunately you don't get any time to enjoy a victory in this league. After a last minute win at Huddersfield infront of 4 thousand Boro fans, we face our second away game in four days with a very tough trip to recently relegated Cardiff.

Match Preview

We go into the game on the back of a dramatic 2-1 victory over Huddersfield with the painfully average Leadbitter scoring a stunning free kick and a last minute penalty. None of our deadline day signings started the game, Vossen should be pushing for a start after impressing after coming on though. Alot of positives from the game but we really do seem to have an inability to kill teams off when we need to. Should have really been 3-0 up when Stead scored.

Cardiff go into the game on the back of a 4-2 defeat at home against Norwich despite leading 2-0 at half time. Solskjaer said after the game that he was prepared to change his team around so we could come up against a very different Cardiff team, in fact he hasn't used the same starting 11 at all this season. Looks like pressure is mounting on the manager too, could be a fairly toxic atmosphere if we manage to frustrate them.

The Opposition

After being relegated last season, Cardiff lost some key players over the summer, the likes of Caulker, Campbell and Medal have all departed the club. They have spent big over the summer including ex Boro target Adam Le Fondre and a load of other players I have never heard of. Jones will be a big danger to anyone in this league, one of the best strikers in the Championship IMO. As we well know its very tough for relegated teams to bounce back.

Speaking to fans on their forum they don't seem too happy at the moment

-Alot of people are starting to question the manager. Sounds like its a must win game for Solskjaer. Not surprised at this, with their squad I would have fully expected them to be near the top end of the league. He is on borrowed time for sure.

-Sounds like they will make alot of changes again, they dont have many injuries but Fabio is doubtful, that would be a boost for us if he didnt play.

- Very mixed bag with score predictions, most think they will beat us which isnt suprising however a few are tipping a boro win.

http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=2

Recent Meetings

Boro 0-2 Cardiff (FA Cup) 09/03/2008

One of the worst days as a Boro fan in the last decade, the big teams were out of the FA cup, we had a championship team in the quarter finals. This was surely our year to win the cup, what could possibly go wrong? Goals from Whittingham and Johnson put us out of the cup for another year and Cardiff went on to the final.

Cardiff 0-3 Boro (Championship) 02/05/11

As revenge for the FA cup we ended their chances of a top 2 finish, they ended up loosing in the playoff final to Blackpool. One of Mowbrays best games as Boro manager. Goals from Lita, Smallwood and Robson had us 3-0 up inside 20 minutes and gave us real hope of a promotion push for the next season (never mind how that turned out)

Boro 2-1 Cardiff (Championship) 02/03/2013

An unbelievable debut goal from Sammy Ameobi renewed our playoff hopes after a brilliant team performance against high flying Cardiff. Unfortunately we went on to miss out on promotion again and Ameobi didn't have another good game all season

Injury News

- Leadbitter Took a heavy knock towards the end of the last game and was limping heavily, hopefully he will be fit for Tuesday.

- Omeruo Missing from the Huddersfield game due to a mystery injury, anyone know what it was?

- Mejias A back injury prevented him from playing on Saturday, unlikely to start in the near future due to his poor form anyway.

- Woodgate Was fit enough to start on the bench, looks to have recovered from his hamstring injury.....for now!

Talking Points

Do we go for it or are we going for a point? Personally I think we will play the same system that we had against Huddersfield with Vossen in for Tomlin. They have a very good team on paper but have had a poor start, would like to see us properly go for it.

----------------Dimi--------------

Abella---Gibson--Ayala---Friend

-------Clayton-----Leadbitter-----

Adomah-----Vossen-----wildschut

----------------Kike------------------

Would like to see wildschut given a start, his pace could be important with our main chances probably coming on the break. Clayton was brilliant defensively against Huddersfield and looks to be building up a good partnership with Leadbitter. Tomlin was fairly poor again, he doesnt deserve to start this one IMO, would like to see Vossen playing just behind Kike. Hopefully Dimi has done enough to start again. Defence looked so much more solid with a confident keeper behind them.

Im going for a 1-1 draw with Vossen scoring for us

Thoughts....?

*Sorry the threads a bit rushed, havnt had much time to do it

Omeruo put a pic of himself on Instagram and looked like he was still in Nigeria on Thursday or Friday so hopefully was just late getting back

Omeruo put a pic of himself on Instagram and looked like he was still in Nigeria on Thursday or Friday so hopefully was just late getting back

I'm pretty sure this was the reason Ken missed the game.

This is a good chance to play them in my opinion. Don't think they have been all that impressive this season to be honest, we've just had a morale boosting performance with 3 points to boot and OGS just isn't the kind of manager that (from the outside) really looks like the type to inspire his team.

A draw would be a good result, and in my opinion the most likely one. Though definitely think we're more then good enough to win on Tuesday.

Would start with a similar team, with a couple of tweaks.

----------------- Dimi -----------------

- Damia - Omeruo - Gibson - Friend -

--------- Leadbitter - Clayton ---------

---------------- Tomlin ----------------

--- Adomah ------------- Wildschut ---

----------------- Kike ------------------

Could make a case for starting Whitehead. Dimi is an easy pick. Can't say I know a great deal about Wildschut, but Reach (though has done well) still hasn't convinced me, and by all accounts YW is rapid (perfect on the break vs a stronger team then the Udders). Kike continues to impress me with his hold up and link up play, absolutely crucial traits with one up top (even if he has gone a few games without a goal). And Omeruo, if available, has to start.

Any word on Leadbitter's leg? Looked pretty painful when he did it, and obviously he was moving a lot better towards the end of the game (to good effect I might add!), but I imagine it's going to bruise like a mutha.

Going to assume he's fit.

----------------- Dimi -----------------

- Damia - Omeruo - Gibson - Friend -

--------- Leadbitter - Clayton ---------

--- Adomah ----Vossen----- Wildschut ---

----------------- Kike ------------------

I think Kike might be on his last game as automatic starter, for now. He's working hard, but he isn't scoring just now, and Bamford is champing at the bit for a start.

I think Tomlin and Reach both had reasonable games yesterday, the latter more so, but I think the new lads might be given a start.

Don't forget to rub Aladdin's magic lamp, it puts positive waves out.

V.v tough game this one. They will be desperate for a result after throwing it away at the weekend. Can imagine them starting very hard to take the pressure off. If we can weather it the crowd might turn on them.

This is probably the better game to give vossen and wildschut their first starts. I had a feeling Saturday might be a little spicy and it duly was.

Ill go for a very optimistic 2-1 win for boro. Id take a draw in a heartbeat mind.

Think we will get a result though like many i would take a draw now.

Intersting read on the Cardiff forums. It seems the the knives are out for solskjaer.

JP

----------------Dimi--------------

Abella---Gibson--Ayala---Friend

-------Clayton-----Leadbitter-----

Adomah-----Vossen-----wildschut

----------------Kike------------------

That is a scary very very strong team (on paper anyway)

UTB

Badger in Asia

I've only just realised that Cardiff are 16th in the league. That's really bad considering they've just been relegated, not as bad as Fulham though, but still bad.

Got a good feeling for this game. Think if we play like we know we can we will win a vast amount of games. Cardiff just shipped in 4 goals on Saturday so both fans and players will be pretty nervous going into this game. We must take our chances though!

http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=2

worth a quick look on their forum, very negative at the moment!

This is a very very informative thread on that forum

BU edit: Borderline NSFW!

http://www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=143852

Thats was informative!!

Should be a link for this game due to Cardiff's sponsers I believe?

Found this though unsure how accurate it is

http://watchonline.name/watch-cardiff-v-middlesbrough-soccer-livestream/

Fingers crossed for better finishing from open play, Cardiff are no push overs but we could rub salt into their wounds