I have a sneaky feeling Adam won’t be doing a preview for the game today, as (as some of you may know) he went to Australia on Saturday, which means a) he probably won’t be feeling up to it and b) I suspect the time difference may prove a problem. If he even has internet, that is.
So you’re stuck with my ramblings, which will be more general thoughts.
I couldn’t dare try to compete with Adam on this sort of article as I don’t have a clue who Lambert will line up with or what his formation will be.
Adam just does that way better than me, so I’m not even going to try.
So just look at this article as somewhere to sound off and add your predictions to.
Is this what we’d call a big game?
Well, normally, it wouldn’t be. No disrespect to Cardiff, but it’s not exactly the sort of game that attracts major interest is it?
But yes, it is for me this time, as if we win, we open up a bit more of a gap on the bottom three.
As opposed to the opposite case, where obviously, if we lose, we’re going to start getting sucked in.
Something that, regardless of your stance in the serious and somewhat heated debate in the last article (good stuff by the way), I’m sure none of us want to see.
Cardiff have a pretty poor record of late. They’ve won two, drawn one and lost the rest in their last 10 games.
Whereas we’ve won two, drawn two and lost six. Also pretty poor.
While Villa have a just below average record in conceding goals this season, Cardiff have a decidedly poorer record and only Fulham have conceded more.
Cardiff don’t score many either. Their goalscoring record is equal second worst in the league whereas ours is again very average, as you’d expect for a mid-table team.
So what does that little lot tell us?
Not a lot, except that we should have the edge, given that we’re generally better when playing away.
I can see goals here. Not many, but some.
Hence I’ll predict Cardiff 1 – Villa 2.
But for some very strange reason, I can also see a very good win just niggling in the corner of my mind.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
Just to add a bit of spice to it, if anyone can predict the correct score AND name the last (or only) scorer on either side, I’ll give a prize of a score (£20). A score for a score, get it? Please yourselves (that was my Frankie Howard impression, fwiw).
If there’s more than one correct answer, it’ll be split.
I’m not made of money, you know!
And no, I won’t accept 0-0, with no scorer. Far too negative, that. And also far too easy to predict.
Get your predictions in then lads, you’ve nowt to lose.
And Up the Villa!
