Football – England – Championship
Saturday 16th August 2014 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Cardiff City shared a point away at Blackburn Rovers in last weekend’s Championship opener in a 1-1 draw, but they now have the chance of claiming their first home win of the season when they entertain Huddersfield Town at their Cardiff City Stadium this afternoon.
Cardiff manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer started with an attacking 4-3-3 formation at Blackburn and I fancy he’ll go with the same formation again today as The Bluebirds look to bring an entertaining and attacking brand of football to this season’s Championship campaign. He’s helped by possessing important key attacking personnel such as Kenwyne Jones who has a point to prove this term, along with new signings Le Fondre, Macheda and Maynard, and midfielder Adeyemi from Birmingham City.
Goals therefore shouldn’t be too far away particularly in their home games, and with the visit of Huddersfield Town who shipped too many goals away from home last season, Cardiff may well be collectively licking their lips at this afternoon’s prospects.
Onto Huddersfield Town then, and as mentioned, they returned a below-par away record last season of 6-5-12 24/33, keeping just five clean sheets on their travels all season. If last season was a disappointment, then the start of this season couldn’t have been much worse – an opening day defeat at home to Bournemouth 0-4 prompted the departure of manager Mark Robins with immediate effect, and The Terriers now need to re-group quickly under new boss Mark Lillis.
A trip away to a strong Cardiff outfit intent on a swift return to the top flight therefore couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Yorkshire club who have also lost their influential defender Peter Clarke and important midfielder Adam Clayton who was part of a curious swap deal with Middlesbrough’s Jacob Butterfield.
Nevertheless, striker Nakhi Wells now has a full season in the Championship ahead of him to really announce himself and put him in the shop window so to speak, but Terriers fans may be thinking it’s a case of deja-vu with former striker Jordan Rhodes in mind!
Cardiff will want a good start at home and against a fragile Huddersfield defence I’m confident the hosts can record a win here today. I’ll also back them to cover the -1 asian line too in what could be a 2-0 win for The Bluebirds.
Pick: Cardiff City AH-1 @ 2.35 Pinnacle
