MATCH THREAD ' SHEFF WEDNESDAY v CARDIFF CITY ' MATCH THREAD

Sheffield Wednesday:

Form in Championship: WWWLDL
Form in all competitions: WLWLDL

Possible starting lineup: Westwood, Palmer, Lees, Loovens, Helan, Hutchinson, McGugan, Melo, Maghoma, Maguire, Nuhiu

Cardiff City:

Form in Championship: DLWLLL
Form in all competitions: WWLLLL

Possible starting lineup: Moore, Peltier, Morrison, Connolly, Malone, Noone, O'Keefe, Gunnarsson, Harris, Whittingham, Doyle

2-1 city Doyle to start with a bang and two goals

A new-look Sheffield Wednesday squad will look to return to winning ways this Saturday when they host Cardiff City at Hillsborough.

Three Championship games without a win dealt a blow to Wednesday's surprise playoff bid, and forced the club to recruit four new players on transfer deadline day.

Sergiu Bus, Marnick Vermijl, Lewis McGugan and Melo all arrived on Monday as the club's new owner Dejphon Chansiri looks to hand a potentially vital boost to Stuart Gray's side.

All four players are likely to be involved on Saturday, but Gray will probably keep faith with the majority of players who have led his team to 10th in the table after 28 games.

As the fans prepare to welcome the new arrivals, there will also be a farewell at Hillsborough after the club confirmed that former owner Milan Mandaric would be recognised with a tribute before kickoff.

When the match does get underway, Wednesday will be looking to avenge the 2-1 defeat they suffered to Cardiff in the Welsh capital in September.



Despite triumphing in the previous fixture between the two sides, Cardiff head into the game four points behind their opponents, and Russell Slade's men are closer to the relegation zone than the playoff places, which comes as a frustration to the fans who had targeted promotion at the start of the campaign.

It proved to be a productive end to the transfer window for Cardiff, too, as they kept hold of Craig Noone and secured deals to sign Matthew Kennedy and Conor McAleny from Everton.

However, the biggest news was the acquisition of Eoin Doyle from Chesterfield, and the striker, who has scored 25 goals in 33 games this season, is likely to be handed his debut on Saturday as Cardiff look to end a run of four successive defeats in all competitions.

Sheffield Wednesday:

Form in Championship: WWWLDL
Form in all competitions: WLWLDL

Possible starting lineup: Westwood, Palmer, Lees, Loovens, Helan, Hutchinson, McGugan, Melo, Maghoma, Maguire, Nuhiu

Cardiff City:

Form in Championship: DLWLLL
Form in all competitions: WWLLLL

Possible starting lineup: Moore, Peltier, Morrison, Connolly, Malone, Noone, O'Keefe, Gunnarsson, Harris, Whittingham, Doyle

CARDIFF CITY FANS CAN PAY ON THE DAY

Gray Relishing Cardiff Options

Friday 6th Feb 2015



Manager Stuart Gray has said he's relishing the options he now has at his disposal following a productive run in the transfer market ahead of our game this weekend against Cardiff City.

Speaking to the Official Site Gray explained that he felt we now had a good balance within the squad, and cover where needed.

'It's about getting the right balance in your team. You've got to have a few soldiers that will win the ball and do the ugly side of the game. But you also need your flair players. Players like Jose Semedo can sometimes go unnoticed for the work they do but you need those players in your team. You look at the other midfielders in the dressing room and see the likes of Lewis McGugan in that area who can create and hopefully got and get a goal for us.'

Prior to giving this interview, Gray had been training the lads, and he said that having 24 out there, fit and in contention, wanting to start the game, was a good headache for him - especially with the schedule of games we have coming up now because he will need to rotate just to freshen players up, but he has that depth now.

'The most important thing on Saturday is that whatever eleven I put out there will give it a right good go.'

Semedo is a doubt ahead of the game as he's struggling with an injury, and Gray is disappointed by that because he believes he's been one of our most consistent players this term, but he'll undergo a late test and we'll see what's what for the game.

Speaking about him missing the Reading loss, explained.

'It was frustrating for us and Semi on Saturday because we had prepared for the game and then had to change things around. Semi couldn't even get his trainer on as his toe had swollen up that badly. He was in a lot of pain.'

Cardiff have won 10%, drawn 35% and lost 55% of their last 20 away games.

In their last 20 away games against teams positioned in the top half of the table, Cardiff have won 2, drawn 3 and lost 15 of these matches.

In their last 20 away games against teams positioned above them in the table, Cardiff have won 2, drawn 4 and lost 14 of these matches.

Who's the ref?
Kevin Wright (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire). Aged 44.

It's a home fixture for us this time round as Wednesday look to revive our play-off push, which was boosted by some healthy transfer window activity, well deadline day activity even!

Wednesday, which should be something of a new look side, take on a Cardiff side that's out of form and struggling - it'll not be an easy game for us at Hillsborough on Saturday though.

Lewis McGugan should make a second Wednesday debut after his loan return, until the end of the season, from Watford on deadline day.

Fellow arrivals on deadline day Sergiu Bus, Marnick Vermijl and Melo Silva are all in the squad too and also pushing for immediate debuts but Glenn Loovens (suspension) is out after his 10th booking was collected in the defeat to Reading - Jose Semedo (toe) is also struggling again.

Cardiff could give deadline day arrivals Matty Kennedy, Conor McAleny and Eoin Doyle debuts too but David Marshall (groin) is still missing but Bruno Manga (international duty) returns.

' RUSSELL SLADE READY TO CHANGE STYLE OF FOOTBALL & GAME PLAN '



Cardiff City boss Russell Slade claims he's ready to change style of football as January signings aim to make instant impact

Sat 7th February 2015

By Chris Wathan

The Cardiff City manager admits the current game plan is not what is needed to keep the Bluebirds out of a relegation battle


Russell Slade has claimed he is willing to ditch the direct style that has left Bluebirds fans disillusioned – and says he has the players to keep Cardiff up.

But he admitted his men cannot afford to lose at Sheffield Wednesday if they are to keep up their claims that relegation is not a concern at Cardiff City Stadium.

Slade, speaking ahead of a vital trip to Hillsborough on Saturday, deflected questions about the pressure he is under while members of the club’s hierarchy watched on.

Both chairman Mehmet Dalman and chief executive Ken Choo were in the room as Slade discussed what’s needed to be done to turn around the woeful form that has placed the side to within seven points of the relegation places – a gap that could be cut to four by the end of the weekend.


Yet with supporters also making their frustrations known over the increasingly obvious direct style of play, Slade denied he sees long ball as the way out of trouble and suggested he is ready to abandon such plans.

Asked whether he thought the Bluebirds’ unappealing game-plan was based on what he thought was needed to stay out of trouble, Slade said: “No I don’t and talking of style, in terms of possession our numbers were good last week.



“It’s something we worked on to try and keep the battle better than what we had done in previous weeks. I think we were relatively successful with that against a good side.

“If you are saying have I got my best XI yet, in all honesty the answer is no. If you’re saying have we got the best style that suits the group at this moment, the honest answer would be no not yet but that’s understandable because we are in a period of transition which I keep saying and which you can’t get away from. It’s a fact and we can only work on fact.”

Eoin Doyle scores an FA Cup penalty for Chesterfield against ScunthorpeEoin Doyle has joined Cardiff City
More: Who is Eoin Doyle?

Asked whether that meant fans would start seeing more possession-based football, Slade said players he had brought in on deadline day such as Conor McAleny from Everton and Eoin Doyle from Chesterfield showed that.

He said: “If you are going to bring somebody into the football club like that then you have got to get him on the ball and we will be looking to do that if he is in the team.

“We went to the game on Saturday with a view to trying to win a football match and we will do that again with a hope that this time it will come off for us.”

Some medication there all on worse than one flew over the cuckoos nest !

Come on City at least a draw

Looks like it has draw written all over it, anything less will be another very poor result for Slade. Wednesday are a very average side, so I will go 1-1

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Slade now at least making a decent looking bench.

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Noone dropped completely or maybe to be loaned next week to Norwich

In a 433 that's a first for Slade.

KJ 1-0 city

1 :0
Kenwyne Jones

Get in Jones!!!

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Noone dropped completely or maybe to be loaned next week to Norwich

Or maybe dropped because he's been shit lately ?

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Noone dropped completely or maybe to be loaned next week to Norwich

Or maybe dropped because he's been shit lately ?

I know he's been shit

Think that's a decent starting line up more importantly a stronger bench than I've seen this year so far

Maybe just maybe we can start playin some football

Miss the first 20 minutes but from what I have heard Cardiff are doing very well and deserve the lead.

Miss the first 20 minutes but from what I have heard Cardiff are doing very well and deserve the lead.

Yeah best first half I've seen in a while

No streams or BBC web coverage so listening on BBC Wales. Sounds promising so far but only caught last 10 mins. Doyle getting plaudits and getting proper stuck in. Maybe he will lift he squad to do the same.

Come on lads lets not do our usual good half shit half

I really think that a second goal would put the game to bed and if we do get that then bring on Adeyemi for Whitts.

Are we playing a passing game today rather than the usual long ball tactics. How are the possession stats looking.

No streams or BBC web coverage so listening on BBC Wales. Sounds promising so far but only caught last 10 mins. Doyle getting plaudits and getting proper stuck in. Maybe he will lift he squad to do the same.

Cardiff struggled first 15 minutes of the second half. Wednesday changed their formation and have had the better of the half.