City v Preston. Match preview

Last updated : 09 December 2003 By Michael Morris

Cardiff have the chance of going upto at least 5th place if a victory can be acheived against Preston tonight. 4th place is mathmatically possible if a City win is matched by a Walsall win at Sheff Utd.

The top half table looks like this after last nights 1 - 1 draw for Sunderland at Coventry.

Team	P	Home					Away					Pts	Goal Diff
Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Goal Diff
West Brom	21	6	3	2	14	7	6	2	2	18	11	41	14
Norwich	22	9	1	1	20	9	2	6	3	10	11	40	10
Ipswich	22	7	2	2	26	13	4	3	4	17	19	38	11
Sheff Utd	21	7	1	2	19	7	4	3	4	14	17	37	9
Reading	22	7	2	2	17	10	4	2	5	12	13	37	6
Sunderland	22	5	5	1	12	6	4	3	4	13	12	35	7
Wigan	22	6	4	1	16	8	3	4	4	13	15	35	6
Cardiff	21	5	3	2	21	8	4	4	3	16	15	34	14
West Ham	21	4	5	1	17	9	4	5	2	11	8	34	11
Preston	21	7	2	2	21	10	2	2	6	9	14	31	6
Millwall	22	6	4	1	13	5	1	4	6	11	18	29	1
Nottm Forest	22	4	4	3	19	12	3	3	5	15	19	28	3

All the teams on 21 games play tonight. The table will be fully even with all teams having played 22 games. 1 short of the half season total. As alarming as it is to think of such things we could be going to Norwich on Saturday with a chance of going second in the table.

Preston are in 10th place and should not be underestimated. They have been poor on the road though with only 2 wins from 10 games. They did manage a 4 - 1 win at home on Saturday.

Preston are managed by Craig Brown, the former Scotland manager. He includes Bobby Gould's son Johnathon in goals. Young Gould replaced Neil Alexander on the bench for Scotland in the play offs so Neil will be hoping to be the better keeper tonight to prove a point.

Peter Thorne and Robert Earnshaw start upfront for City but there will be a change in midfield. Mark Bonner is expected to come in for the departed Julian Gray.

Bonners place on the bench will be filled by James Collins.

City probable

Alexander, Croft, Vidmar, Gabbidon, Barker, Langley, Boland, Bonner, Robinson, Earnshaw, Thorne

Subs Margetson, Prior, Collins, Cambell and Gordon.

With Gray and Maxwell gone and Kavanagh, Bowen and Whalley injured we are short of midfield cover.

Preston Probable

Gould, Jackson, Lucketti, Broomes, Alexander, Etuhu, McKenna, O'Neil, Lewis, Fuller, Healy.

Subs: Lucas, Cresswell, Davis, Cartwright, Abbott.

City last played Preson in the 1999 / 2000 relegation season. The game at Ninian Park saw Preston win 4 - 0. One of the goals came from Kurt Nogan. Soon after City fans contributed to the purchase of Nogan who never achieved the level expected of him at Ninian Park. Nogan now plays for a local Cardiff side.

City managed to earn a shock point at Deepdale but were relegated soon after.

Tonights other fixtures are

Bradford	v	West Brom	19.45
Cardiff	v	Preston	19.45
Sheff Utd	v	Walsall	19.45
West Ham	v	Stoke	19.45
Crystal Palace	v	Crewe	20.00

How nice it would be to se Stoke bounce back and get a result at West Ham and Walsall and Bradford to pick up important wins.

The officials for tonights game are referee Mark Cooper (W Midlands) and his assistants Phil Gibs (W Midlands) and Kevin Hamkes (Gloucestershire). I wonder if they car share?

Peter Thorne goes into the Preston game on the back of a hat trick at Stoke another goal or two tonight would keep up his impressive strike rate which is currently 8 goals in 9 games. Earnie has not scored for 1 whole game so he's due one as well.

City have only picked up 1 point from the last two home games so a win tonight would be a huge boost in front of large crowd.

Cardiff City v Preston North End
Ninian Park, 7:45pm.

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