The Opposition cardiff city

Fact file

Nickname: The Bluebirds

Formed: 1899

Stadium: Cardiff City Stadium Stadium Capacity: 33,280

Head Coach: Steve Morison

Last season finish: 8th in Championship

The Opposition cardiff city

ONE TO WATCH Rubin Colwill

ATTACKING MIDFIELDER

DOB: 27 April 2002

Every cloud has a silver lining, and the emergence of the teenage forward into the club’s senior set-up has been a much-needed ray of light in a troubled campaign.

The Academy prospect only featured a handful of times during 2020/21 before earning a spot in Wales Head Coach Robert Page’s squad at the Euro 2021 finals. This season the 19-year-old has continued to excel and has quickly developed into one of the club’s most influential players.

A fearless approach and the ability to orchestrate attacks has seen the Wales international score four times this season, all on the road. Morison certainly believes his midfield architect is destined for a bright career, but hopes he remains with his boyhood club beyond the expiration of his contract in June 2024.

“This is the best place for him,” Morison told BBC Sport. “He is playing in front of his family and his friends for the team he has supported his whole life.

“Where is the best place to grow? It is here. I am not going to sit here and say no one is going to be interested in a 19-year-old who is arguably our star man most weeks though, because that will mean you will not take what I am saying as the truth.”

MORISON HAS BLUEBIRDS ON SONG

The Bluebirds were on a nose dive they were struggling to pull up from during the worst autumn on record for Cardiff City.

A club record eight consecutive defeats, starting with a 1-0 loss at Coventry City in mid-September and ending with a 0-2 home defeat to Middlesbrough the following month, spelled the end of Mick McCarthy’s 10-month reign as manager. Included in the depressing downturn was a 5-1 loss at Blackburn Rovers, a 0-4 home thumping to West Bromwich Albion and a humiliating 3-0 reverse to South Wales rivals Swansea City.

Having finished last season with plenty of promise on a six-game unbeaten run and beginning this term by taking eight points from the opening four games, a capitulation of such proportion seemed incongruous.

Restoring confidence and getting chins off chests has fallen to former Wales striker Steve Morison and Tom Ramasut, the duo stepping up into interim charge from coaching roles with the club’s Under-23s, while former captain Mark Hudson returned in a coaching capacity.

They masterminded an astonishing comeback at Stoke City in their first dug-out appointment at senior level, coming from 3-0 down to draw at bet365 Stadium, and have since continued to help the club turn a corner with three wins in their last five games.

Morison is convinced he can get the Bluebirds soaring once again, telling Wales Online: “It is about getting the players and staff all moving in the right direction and can we be better as staff and better as players to get this football club away from trouble. Once we have done that then we can enjoy our work every single day because that is ultimately what it is all about.

“If we can make people better, if we can get the fans closer to the players then that is what we need to do. We are going to try and do anything we can to make that happen and there

IN THE DUGOUT Steve Morison

DOB: 18 October 1978 Appointed: October 2021

Cardiff’s top brass took a new approach with the internal promotion of rookie coach Morison in October. The Bluebirds had opted for experience in the dug-out with Neil Warnock, Neil Harris and Mick McCarthy in charge over the previous five years. This time around though the interim appointment of the club’s Under-23s coach was unexpected but applauded by a host of club greats. Former Cardiff captain Jason Perry called it a “sensible appointment” and Joe Ledley praised “the different style of play”. What the former Wales striker lacks in experience he has more than made up for in positivity and energy, something that was required to galvanise the Bluebirds from their malaise. An Academy coach at previous employers Northampton Town and Millwall, the 38 -year-old has the nurturing skills to get the best out of a youthful crop he knows well and the determination to lift Cardiff up the table. Club owner Vincent Tan has certainly been encouraged by Morison’s start and said: “The excellent work done by Steve and Tom at Under-23s level this season puts them in the very best position to help develop a talented crop of young players emerging at senior level. “A healthy finish in the Championship this season is, of course, of paramount importance and a review of the side’s progress will be undertaken at the end of the campaign.”

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will be no stone left unturned in our journey over this period to bring real change around the place and to make the football club as one again.”

While results have improved markedly thanks to a hat-trick of 2-1 successes over Huddersfield Town, Preston North End and Luton Town, re-establishing that connectivity with the fanbase has been less forthcoming. direct football identity in recent years, something Morison is determined to move away from to pursue top-six ambitions. In the long-serving Joe Ralls City have a serial assister who often operates alongside the ubiquitous Marlon Pack. Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee Ryan Giles has been a mainstay down the left wing, while former Crewe Alexandra’s Perry Ng patrols the opposite flank.

November defeats to Hull City and Sheffield United provoked disgruntled grumblings at the Cardiff City Stadium and left Morison reiterating that “if we are going to get out of this, it is going to take absolutely everybody”.

Arresting some worrying home form, which has seen Cardiff score just nine times in 11 games in CF11 this season, is high on Morison’s ‘to do’ list. As is the necessity to sure up a porous backline that has conceded 37 times in 21 Championship outings.

Yet Morison has the personnel at his disposal to make City more resolute. Current incumbent between the posts Alex Smithies has more than 300 appearances at Championship level and in the commanding Michael Morrison, who has been with the club since 2014, and Aden Flint they possess two towering enforcers. League regular Curtis Nelson once captained Oxford United and former Arsenal youth Mark McGuiness are other valued options in a preferred back three. Effervescent homegrown talents such as Sam Bowen and Tom Sang have stepped up this season, yet it has been Wales international Rubin Colwill who has grabbed the headlines with four goals in his breakthrough campaign. Further forward Wales cap Mark Harris was on target against Sheffield United recently, former Luton Town hot-shot James Collins scored 14 times last season and youngster Issac Davies has earned his first senior minutes since November.

Last season’s 20-goal leading scorer Keiffer Moore provides the focal point to a Cardiff attack that has drawn blanks in 10 games this term. The 29-year-old Wales international, a £2million signing from Wigan Athletic in 2020, is rediscovering his mojo with three goals since Morison took charge.

The Bluebirds have had two failed attempts at returning to the Premier League since relegation in 2018/19 but will hope this transitional period can lay the groundwork to a sustained assault next time around.

AROUND THE GROUNDS

The Sky Bet Championship’s title race is proving compelling viewing as the season approaches its halfway point, with the chasing pack narrowing the gap on the leaders in recent weeks.

It was no surprise that the firstvs-second clash of Fulham and AFC Bournemouth cancelled each other out in a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage last week. Marco Silva’s free-scoring hosts, with 49 goals in 20 games, came up against one of the division’s meanest defences and the consequence was a third successive stalemate for both.

The division’s form side in Blackburn Rovers head to Dorset today in a tantalising encounter. Tony Mowbray’s side are up to fourth after a 1-0 win over Lancashire rivals Preston North End and will not be daunted while 17-goal Chile international Ben Brereton Diaz remains in red-hot form.

Luton Town are also confident of upsetting the odds this weekend with a trip to Fulham, after manager Nathan Jones lauded his side’s 0-1 win at free-falling Blackpool as “outstanding”.

Third-place West Bromwich Albion returned to winning ways with a 2-1 success at Coventry City and will want to remain the only team in the division unbeaten at home when they welcome a Reading side in fluctuating form.

Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper returns to his former employers Swansea City for the first time today. The Reds have been rejuvenated since his arrival at the City Ground in September and are now in mid-table after handing Peterborough United a tenth away defeat of the campaign last weekend.

Elsewhere, troubled Barnsley travel to Deepdale in search of a first away win and there is an all-City affair on Humberside as Hull City look to extend their unbeaten run to six games against Bristol City.

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