Date: 28/2/15
Venue: Cardiff City Stadium
Kick-off: 3:00pm
Following comfortable victories over Fulham and Rotherham, Wolves aim to continue their good run of form as they travel to Wales to take on Cardiff City.
Kenny Jackett appears to finally have the attacking nouse that he’s been searching for with Benik Afobe, Nouha Dicko and Bakary Sako complimenting each other perfectly, while options on the bench such as James Henry and Kevin Doyle can add an extra dimension to our play when needed.
However there is little room for error if Wolves want to continue their surge towards the playoff spots, with eight out of the top nine teams picking up victories midweek.
As the business end of the season rapidly approaches Wolves look like the team nobody wants to face following the impressive record of eight goals scored and none conceded in our previous two home games.
However, travelling away from home has been a mixed bag recently as Wolves followed up a great result against Huddersfield with a demoralising defeat at Norwich.
Cardiff will also prove a much sterner test than Rotherham and Fulham were and Jackett may have to slightly alter the shape of the side to deal with the counter attacking threat of the Welsh side.
Jack Price struggled playing in a wider role than he is used to on Tuesday and may make way for a more out and out winger such as James Henry or Rajiv van La Parra.
Cardiff themselves have made a dreadful return to the championship after being relegated following their first season of Premiership football.
After being most bookies favourites to win the division they are sitting in 13th at the end of February and sacked manger Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in favour of former Orient boss Russell Slade.
After a rocky start Slade has turned Cardiff into a solid defensive unit, with them picking up three clean sheets out of their last five games, which has put much distance between themselves and the relegation zone.
In the previous game this season, Wolves snatched a victory in the dying moments due to a late Mark Hudson own goal, however this Bluebirds side looks dramatically different to the one that lined up that day in August.
Fans can expect a hostile atmosphere at the Cardiff City Stadium but a win here would breed confidence going into Tuesday’s huge game against promotion hopefuls Bournemouth.
Danger Men
Wolves
Bakary Sako’s two goals against Fulham put him on four goals from four games and he will be looking to extend that stat even further on Saturday. Despite increased speculation of his seemingly imminent move away in the summer; Sako appears to be enjoying his football and played nearly an hour on Tuesday in spite of having a stomach bug.
Cardiff
Cardiff’s main threat comes from the abundance of pace they have at their disposal. Craig Noone is a tricky winger that can cause any side problems while Peter Whittingham is a City stalwart having been ever present for the club for the past eight seasons.
Goalkeeper David Marshall is still one of the club’s star performers after gaining many plaudits from Premiership pundits last season after being one of Cardiff’s few highlights from their dismal relegation season.
Match odds
Cardiff 13/8
Draw 23/10
Wolves 13/8
First goalscorer
Nouha Dicko 6/1
Benik Afobe 6/1
Bakary Sako 8/1
Eion Doyle 6/1
Kenwyne Jones 6/1
(Image via birminghammail.co.uk)
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