Leggi Looks At: Cardiff
By Aston
April 7 2008
STB message boarder Leggi is back giving us an insight into Town's opposition on Wednesday night it's FA Cup Finalists Cardiff City at Portman Road in The Championship.
CARDIFF CITY
Wednesday 9th April, Portman Road, Kick-off 19:45
FA Cup finalists, Cardiff City fly from their 22,008 capacity Ninian Park stadium, on the back of an 8 match unbeaten run, that includes decent victories against top sides Bristol City and Hull, and of course Sundays Wembley win.
Manager Dave Jones has assembled a good Squad down there at Cardiff, that includes a mixture of youth and experience and he will be looking to better last seasons 13th place finish.
The Bluebirds currently sit 12th in this years standings, just 4 points behind a failing Town side who are on the fringes of the Play-offs.
The Tractorboys lost 1-0 at Ninian Park back in November in the first of this seasons meetings, Paul Parry with Cardiff's' goal.
Whilst Ipswich won this same fixture on the last day of last season by 3 goals to 1. Jeffers (booooo), and a Jon Walters double for Town, Parry again for the Welsh outfit.
FORM GUIDE
(4th) Cardiff City P6 W3 D3 L0
(10th) Ipswich Town P6 W2 D2 L2
*MATCH FACT* Cardiff won on their first 2 visits to Portman Road but have not won in Suffolk since, a Total of 62 years.
OUR LEAGUE RECORD V CARDIFF AT PORTMAN ROAD
Played: 14
Won: 7
Drawn: 5
Lost: 2
Goals:
For: 24
Against: 15
The highest attendance came in May 2004 when 28,703 watched a 1-1 draw, Shefki Kuqi with Towns goal. The lowest turnout (10,010) also watched a 1-1 draw in December 1964, Gerard Baker on the score sheet for The Blues.
Our biggest victory is by 3 goals to 1, achieved twice (2004, 2007) and both Cardiff's victories have been by a single goal 1-0 and 2-1.
The deadly duo of Ray Crawford and Ted Phillips are, once again, our all time leading scorers against The bluebirds with 4 goals each. Tommy Miller has netted 3 times.
18 players have worn the blue and white of both clubs, including 3 goalkeepers Jon Hallworth, Mark Grew and Neil Alexander.
Leggi's player to fear: 21 year old midfielder Joe Ledley, Cardiff born and bred, Joe scored the winning goal at Wembley on Sunday to add to his 7 League goals this campaign. After joining Cardiff as a 9 year old Ledley made his way through their Centre of excellence and Youth academy before making his first team debut in the 2004/05 season, last season he became the only Cardiff player to play in every game and is now a regular in the Welsh first team after making his International debut in 2005. Representing his country at youth, U21 and now the full team he scored his first international goal last October in a Euro qualifier against San Marino.
Valued by Cardiff at over £5 million both Everton and Wolves have had offers turned down this season.
This left sided/central midfielder looks a real good prospect for the future and our midfield will have to work a lot harder than Saturday to keep this boy quiet. I don't feel Williams or Garvan will have the quality to stop him.
Leggi predicts: After their Wembley win on Sunday, I hope they are still in cloud cuckoo land when they turn up on Wednesday then we might stand a chance, our shambolic effort on Saturday needs to be raised by a mile, and I hope Jim has drilled this into the players, I feel he knows the pressure is on him now, a loss against Cardiff then to Norwich and I think Mr Evans will be telling him to get his coat. Cardiff didn't look that good in the Semi-final in all honesty and I think we can nick this one, but I'm fearful for Sunday, be warned.
I predict Ipswich 1 Cardiff 0.
Got a prediction for the game? Leave it below.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:04:09:21:22:28 by Portman.23.
