[Lord Snooty]

Cardiff City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Wednesday 21st August - 19:45 ko
at the Cardiff City Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to Cardiff and the imaginatively named Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday night. We are on the brink of a new era follwing the sacking on Friday night of Head Coach Jan Siewert after our 1-2 defeat at home to Fulham and Cardiff have just been well and truly stuffed by Reading this Sunday lunchtime, 0-3.

But this match is all about old friends reunited. Of course Cardiff are managed by our old friend Neil Warnock and Town, possibly for this one match only, are managed by the man who captained Cardiff to promotion to the Premier League as champions of the Championship in 2013, Mark Hudson.

He also skippered us to promotion as well of course, was a non playing sub in the Play Off Final, but still got to lift the trophy. This will be his second match as caretaker at Town, having done it for one match following the parting of ways with David Wagner, after the 0-0 draw down at Cardiff in January. That one game he had in charge was a 0-3 defeat at home to Man City.

Cardiff also have a few of our ex players in their squad. Lee Peltier, Danny Ward, Alex Smithies, Jazz Richards and the skipper Sean Morrison. And the coaching team are also full of our old friends. Warnock in charge, with Ronnie Jepson, Kevin Blackwell and Andy Dibble.

A brief history of Cardiff City: Formed in 1899, they didn't enter the Football League until 1920. But once in there, they made a rapid rise. They won promotion to Division One in their first season and then reached their highest league position ever in 1924 when they finished runners up to Huddersfield Town by the narrowest margin ever. We won it on goal average, which was the ruling back then, however if it had been today's ruling they would have taken the title on goals scored. Unlucky!

We went on to win the title three times in a row, they went to the FA Cup Final, losing 0-1 against Sheffield United. But they did win it in 1927 when Hughie Ferguson scored the only goal of the game at Wembley to beat Arsenal, thus becoming the only Welsh team to lift the famous trophy.

The good times didn't last though and successive relegations at the end of the decade saw them start the 1930s in Division 3 South. And there they stayed until the first season after the war when they won the Div 3S title. They were back in Division 1 in 1952, but back to Div 2 in 1957. A couple of seasons back up in the 60s and then a long spell in Div 2 before getting relegated to Div 3 in 1976. All the way down to Div 4 for one season in 1986/87, then up and down again before 1996 saw them finish 22nd out of 24 clubs in Div 4, their lowest ever league finish.

Back up again in the 3rd tier, they won the 2003 Play Offs against QPR, with Andy Campbell scoring the only goal of the Final. In 2008 they made it once more to the FA Cup Final, losing again, this time to Portsmouth. Back to Wembley again in 2012 for their first ever League Cup Final. This was against the mighty Liverpool. Joe Mason had given them an early lead before Liverpool equalised to take the match to extra time. The Reds took the lead, only for Ben Turner to level things up two minutes from time. So to penalties and Liverpool won it 3-2 with sub Anthony Gerrard missing the crucial one after his cousin Steve had earlier missed one for the Reds. Anthony's punishment for his misdemeanour was a transfer to Huddersfield Town.

They followed that the next season by winning the Championship and therefore a return to the top flight for the first time in 52 years. They came straight back down though. Not to worry, they were back up again in 2018. But of course, came straight back down yet again.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 29 wins to Cardiff's 24 with 22 draws.

We first met in 1921/22. It was goalless at Leeds Road and then 1-0 to Cardiff at Ninian Park. A couple of odd results later that decade. We beat them at home 8-2 in 1927/28, then went and lost 0-4 down at theirs.

We beat them 4-0 at home in 1982/83 with Mark Lillis scoring all four goals. And repeated the scoreline the following season, this time centre back Paul Jones scored a hat trick (2 of them penalties). Another lad to score four goals in a match for us was Craig Maskell in 1989/90. That was in a 5-1 win down at Ninian Park. And in 1994/95 we beat them at the MacAlpine by 5-1. That was the match where their manager Terry Yorath kicked them out of the dressing room for being 4-0 down at half time and they all had to spend the interval kicking a ball about with the subs. They were on a big downer then.

We didn't play them again until they got promoted back in 2001 and we won 2-1 down at their ground. Then we parted ways again, Cardiff going up, us down, but we did meet up for a League Cup match in 2011. This was at their new ground and after being 0-2 down at half time, our brave lads fought back with goals from Jordan Rhodes, Danny Ward and then an 88th minute "winner" from Rhodes taking us through, only for Don Cowie to equalise deep into injury time. The Bluebirds then won it 5-3 in extra time.

Our first game back in the Championship in 2012 after winning the Play Offs was a Friday night Sky Sports match down there and the newcomers to the division did really well to earn a point, only for Cardiff to snatch it away from us, once again in injury time. And who was it who got that only goal of the game? That man again, Mark Hudson.

Last season we played each other in the top flight for the first time since 1956. Both games ended 0-0, the one down there controversially after we had had a penalty given and then denied by referee Lee Mason after he had consulted his liner, who reminded him of the Premier League directive that Huddersfield Town were not allowed penalties unless they were already three goals up. Unfortunately for our legendary Head Coach, David Wagner, this was the straw that broke the camel's back and he resigned the following day.

So what's happening down at the Cardiff City Stadium? Managed nowadays by Neil Warnock, the former Town boss. He's been there since 2016 and took them up to the Premier League in 2018. That was his eighth promotion as a Football League manager, and that's the record. His other promotions have been with Scarborough, Notts County (twice), the mighty Terriers of 1994/95, Plymouth Argyle, Sheffield Utd and QPR.

So who have they got in their squad? Well there's those five players mentioned in the introduction, though most of them weren't in the squad for the Reading game. Neil Etheridge is the regular keeper, playing in all of last season's Premier League matches, but he is injured and so Alex Smithies will almost certainly be in for this one. He of course, was our penalty spot kick hero at Wembley in 2012 and on Sunday he once again saved one. They were already three down by then though.

Sean Morrison is the skipper and he also scored a penalty in that famous shoot out against Sheffield Utd. His defensive partner is ex Bristol City centre back Aden Flint who signed from Middlesbrough in the summer. He has a knack of popping up with a few goals each season.

Another Town connection in their side is Leandro Bacuna, who's brother played for us in the Premier League, but has since gone missing (can we get that player back please?). Leandro signed in January from Reading for £3m. Midfielder Joe Ralls has been there since 2011, but went on loan to Yeovil when they got promoted in 2013.

Another name to send shivers down our backs is midfielder Lee Tomlin, who always plays well against us, including a certain match for a certain Posh club in 2011 at Old Trafford. He also scored for Bristol City against us and another ex City man is Marlon Pack, but he went off injured at Reading, so may not be available for this one.

There's an ex Leeds man in the squad, Sol Bamba. He played for Warnock at Bellend Road and was his first signing when he got the job at Cardiff. Wasn't in the squad at Reading though.



Recent form: Town are 22nd in the Championship with 1 point and Cardiff are 19th with 3 points.

Results so far this season:

Town 1-2 Derby
QPR 1-1 Town
Town 0-1 Lincoln (Carabooboo Cup)
Town 1-2 Fulham

Wigan 3-2 Cardiff
Cardiff 2-1 Luton
Reading 3-0 Cardiff

[Lord Snooty]

Referee for this game will be Jarred Gillett. He's an Australian A-League ref who is over here studying at Liverpool Uni. Thought he might do a bit of reffing while he's here.
So punching and picking the ball up is ok then?

[jjamez]

There might be some sandpaper involved

[Lord Snooty]

Warnock whining about how poorly they're defending. Ideal time for us to get some forwards in. Get Diakhaby running at them. Mounie flicking headers on for him to chase and Grant finishing off the moves.
This lot are there for the taking if we can get some attackers in. Never mind the defending.

[theo_luddite]

I've a soft spot for Colin - pretty close to that soft spot up in The Dales that I have for L666s. A big stink pot of a bog in the 3 Peaks, just off the footpath between Pen-Y-Ghent and Ribblehead, if you wander slightly off the well worn path.

Apart from the season when he got us up (the year I went over the pond and didn't dare come back for the play-off final or me mother would have killed me if she found out and I hadn't popped up home to see her) I've just never understood what the hell he's trying to do. Somehow he gets teams promoted, or nearly, then 9 times out of 10 he falls out with the board and buggers off. Cardiff must be one of the few where he's hung around for more than a season or two. Must be a language thing. By the time whatever Vincent Tan has said has been translated into Welsh then back into English it must keep coming through as 'have another pay rise Colin, er, Neil.

Any road, good luck to those that are travelling, good luck to Mark Hudson, he's more of a chance with this one than the Man City game he was gifted as interim boss last season, and good luck to everyone else finding an interweb feed that can't get Oggy and his barber on the radio by any normal means.

[Lord Snooty]

Should be on Sky Sports red button this one. All midweek Championship games were on live last season. Not seen them advertising this yet but I'm sure they said they were doing it again.

[Lord Snooty]

Another club connection I'd forgotten about. Frazier Campbell played in 2013/14 for Cardiff in the Prima Donna. Could he make his Town debut down there?

[WakeyTerrier]

Deffo on the Red button.

Warnock, right manager. I was only watching Undr the Cosh yesterday where Neil Shipperley was being interviewed, didn’t have a bad word to say about the man.He knew how to motivate players and get the best out of them.

Having said that I hope Cardiff are dog shit tonight

[Amelia Chaffinch]

It's tomorrow night isn't it?

[Lord Snooty]

It's tomorrow night isn't it?

Yes. Wednesday night 7:45.