Wales, and a new look Cardiff

Jerome’s future at Cardiff has been up in the air since the transfer window opened at the beginning of January but only last Sunday his manager Dave Jones intimated that the 19 year old Huddersfield born striker wouldn’t be going anywhere.

So far it has been the case but Cardiff has been one of the busier places for transfer news this month. Goalkeeper Tony Warner had been on loan at Fulham and he’s now made the move permanent whilst striker, and ex-Claret, Alan Lee has moved on to Ipswich for a fee that is just a mere fraction of the £850,000 they paid for him two and a half years ago.

They’ve also lost striker Michael Ricketts who has returned to Leeds at the end of his loan spell, and he and Lee have both been replaced this week. The first of the signings led to Kyle Lafferty joining Darlington on loan last week. He went up to the north east to replace Congo striker Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu who had walked out of the club.

As the Darlo manager Dave Hodgson predicted, he signed for Cardiff this week and he was followed by Steve Thompson, a Scottish international forward from Rangers. So it is going to be a new look Cardiff that we face and on top of all that they have added a third signing this week by bringing in Riccardo Scimeca in from West Brom.

It is a loan deal, only because there was no time to complete the deal in time for him to play tomorrow, and the deal will be made permanent next week.

Cardiff won their last home game, that was against Southampton, but they haven’t been in the best of form recently and that was their only win in the last five games although that included the FA Cup defeat at Arsenal last week.

It’s so tight at the top end of the table but those results haven’t been disastrous and they have only dropped one place during that period but the Clarets will be looking to ensure that at the very least we remain above them after tomorrow’s game.

Click HERE to see all Cardiff’s results this season.

It will certainly be a new look Cardiff but Dave Jones will have to select his team without Paul Parry and Glenn Loovens, who are both injured, and Jeff Whitley who is ruled out with a suspension.

There’s been no indication as to which of the new players will start but Scimeca’s deal was rushed through to allow him to play and I expect Thompson to join him in the starting line up.

Cardiff’s team could be: Neil Alexander, Rhys Weston, Chris Barker, Darren Purse, Riccardo Scimeca, Jason Koumas, Neal Ardley, Joe Ledley, Kevin Cooper, Steve Thompson, Cameron Jerome. Subs from: Martin Margetson, Neil Cox, Jermaine Darlington, Phil Mulryne, Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu, Willie Boland.

Click HERE to see the full Cardiff squad.

Gifton Noel-Williams returns to the squad after missing the last two games with the facial injuries he sustained in the home defeat against Sheffield Wednesday and, goalkeeper Danny Coyne apart, it is a full strength squad that Steve Cotterill is able to take with him.

We are looking for our first win in five games, the last victory came against Stoke on Boxing Day and it would be no surprise to see us line up with the same team that has played in the last two away games.

That would be: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O’Connor, Micah Hyde, Chris McCann, Garreth O’Connor, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs from: Lee Grant, Wayne Thomas, John Spicer, Danny Karbassiyoon, Graham Branch, Gifton Noel-Williams.

It came just days after the memorable win against Liverpool in the FA Cup but despite dominating the game we were beaten 2-0 with the first goal coming after a bad defensive mistake and the second from a deflected shot.

It was a very disappointing performance and to read more of that, and other previous games at Ninian Park read Two poor recent days at Cardiff in our Look Back section.

The teams a year ago were,

Cardiff: Neil Alexander, Rhys Weston, Danny Gabbidon, James Collins, Chris Barker (Tony Vidmar 71), Graham Kavanagh, Richard Langley, Jobi McAnuff, Junichi Inamoto, Andy Campbell (Joe Ledley 71), Alan Lee. Subs not used: Tony Warner, Lee Bullock, Stuart Fleetwood.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair (Graham Branch 49), Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Lee Roche, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant, James O’Connor, Jean-Louis Valois (Richard Chaplow 76), Ian Moore. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill.

Previous 20 Seasons
Season	Div	Ven	Result	Att	Scorers
1986/87	4	h	1-3	1,717	Hoskin
.	.	a	0-1	2,003	.
1987/88	4	a	1-2	3,401	SP 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	SM 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

Click HERE to see all our results against Cardiff since we drew 1-1 with them in our first meeting back in 1922.