Fri Jan 23, 2015 9:14 pm
Manager Russell Slade has said that he's looked for Cardiff to progress to the next round of the FA Cup this weekend when we face Reading, because he knows a good win on home soil will help the club improve our league form.
Friday 23rd January 2015
Speaking in this press conference to the Official Site the manager was pragmatic about our fourth round tie.
'This is our next opportunity to attempt to get a win. We need a win at the minute, and I think that would do everybody's confidence a world of good, having had two very difficult away trips. There may be one or two changes, but we won't have the five or six that we had for Colchester. Besides, the size of the squad is a little bit smaller than it was three or four weeks ago. I think that a cup run would be fantastic for this club, because I do think that we could benefit from some momentum from it.'
The gaffer goes on to say that when you do make changes for a cup encounter, it gives other players a chance to impress and a chance to stake their claim for a place in the team during league football, and the changes in the last round worked especially with reference to Kadeem Harris who was very impressive, but this time round, it's the fourth round, in front of home supporters and league form has been disappointing again so he will be going stronger and taking less punts when it comes to changes, because he wants the win to boost everybody.
As for team news, Slade says that he's hoping Alex Revell will be back as it was expected he would train today but it would only be a light session, so a decision would probably be made Saturday morning. Anthony Pilkington is set for a mid February return, and that's the sort of timescale we are talking about for the now returned Joe Mason as well.
Nicky Maynard however is out for another five weeks with his back problem - and with links to Huddersfield, that probably rules out a move this window.