Cornelius to make debut tonight

Forest Green Rovers v Cardiff City: New Lawn Stadium 7.45pm

Andreas Cornelius, Cardiff City’s new £8.5m centre-forward, is set to make his debut in tonight’s pre-season clash with Forest Green Rovers.

He is City’s only summer signing so far, but manager Malky Mackay is intent on strengthening his squad before the opening Premier League match at West Ham in less than a month.

Mackay insists he is relaxed about the situation and is intent on ensuring the right players come in at the right price.

“We have to be cute in terms of the players we are bringing in,” said Mackay.

“All deals have to stack up financially, they have to stack up in terms of the players we bring in being better than we have already.

“We are looking to bring in a level of player who can improve this football club which is never easy. We have recruited 30 players in two years and I know exactly how we want to go about it.

“Ideally we would have had everybody in for day one of pre-season training, but that never happens. There is competition for good players and a lot of stages to go through.

"We have targets we are working hard on and they will come in at different stages.

“If you look at my track record over the last couple of years it’s about getting the right person and these things come together at different times. If they come in and are bright people they adapt quickly anyway.”

Tonight, at the New Lawn stadium in Gloucestershire, City play the first of three successive away friendlies.

It’s just over an hour by coach across the Severn Bridge to Nailsworth, where Conference club Rovers are based, and City will make plenty of changes over the course of the 90 minutes.

They then face Cheltenham Town at Whaddon Road on Saturday (3pm) and then travel to Brentford next Tuesday (7.45pm).

Those three fixtures are followed by home clashes with Italian club Chievo and Spain’s Athletic Bilbao on the first two Saturdays in August.

Tonight, at Forest Green (7.45pm), Mackay and assistant manager David Kerslake meet up with an old friend.

The home team are managed by David Hockaday, who was a player at Swindon Town with Kerslake and coached at Watford when Mackay was at Vicarage Road.

“David is a good friend, but most importantly of all his team will give us a tough first test,” said Mackay, who has taken a different path to many clubs in preparing for the 2013-14 season.

While some of City’s Premier League rivals are well into their pre-season match programme, Mackay and his staff focused on fitness during a week-long training camp in Switzerland.

A 26-man squad went through double training sessions every day in Lausanne and returned having laid a foundation for their fitness he believes will serve them well over the season.

Cornelius looks certain to play tonight, while Aron Gunnarsson, on the mend from a dislocated shoulder sustained on international duty, is likely to miss out.


Gunnarsson trained hard in Switzerland, but stayed away from too much physical contact. He will certainly be close to full fitness for the opening Premier League match of the season at West Ham, but admits it is ‘touch and go’ whether he is ready to start at Upton Park.

Meanwhile strikers Fraizer Campbell and NickyMaynard are both ready for this evening, but Mackay will ease them back into action and won’t demand too much.

Certainly, insists Mackay, every player in his first team squad has the chance to make their mark.

“I don’t have pre-conceived ideas about any of my group, including the younger guys,” said Mackay.

“Over the last two seasons we have blooded young players at certain times. Right now it’s about every player staking their claim for a jersey.”

Mackay remains intent on adding more players to this group, but won’t make any moves for the sake of adding to the quantity.

“We are a team who won the Championship by eight points – only three teams have done that in last 10 years,” he said. “We were consistent and strong in our division. Some of the guys have played against Premier League opposition before, while they all tested themselves against Liverpool, one of the top five or six teams in country, in the League Cup final.

“I have a huge belief in my players and the way we are going to go about it this season.

“It’s going to be tough, of course, and we have no doubts about that.

“But we will also be organised, disciplined, fit and have a belief we can be competitive over the season.

“We were favourites with bookies to go up last season and we’ll be their favourites to go down this time, but they are not always right.

“Southampton showed that last season.”

Why are we risking playing Cornelius, or for that matter any of our players - playing what effectively is a step up from a pub side.
I cannot understand what we get out of it playing non league opposition.

Can't wait for tonight seem ages since the last game

Why are we risking playing Cornelius, or for that matter any of our players - playing what effectively is a step up from a pub side.
I cannot understand what we get out of it playing non league opposition.

Its called pre season mate, its a must, players need game time or they wont be ready

Why are we risking playing Cornelius, or for that matter any of our players - playing what effectively is a step up from a pub side.
I cannot understand what we get out of it playing non league opposition.

Its a necessary evil. Match fitness is difficult to replicate on the training ground

I think the advantage of playing non-league is that their Club will massively
appreciate having a Premier League side at their ground, and would hope for that to continue.
Their players will not roll over, but at the same time we wont have any Tommy tough-nuts out
there trying to make a name for themselves - any of that shit and they wont see Cardiff City again
for dust.

I'm expecting Cardiff to win by a lot today with Cornelius scoring at least once to prove himself.

Can't wait for tonight seem ages since the last game

It was

Gaz777 what a load of crap.

We might have close links to the club and are helping them out by them bringing a few supporters in who will want to see Premier League players.

Also it is just something to get the players going and ready. More of getting back into things and fitness.