Cardiff versus Wayne's wonders

Cardiff City play host to Plymouth Argyle on Saturday afternoon looking for the win that may take them off the bottom of the Championship standings.

At a time when the Bluebirds are propping up the division, Plymouth sit in 14th position after a positive start under Wayne Rooney.

While a change in the Cardiff dugout was an inevitability given their prolonged poor form, supporters would not have expected Omer Riza to remain in temporary charge for over three weeks.

Instead, the Cardiff hierarchy have decided to stick with the interim boss after he guided the club to four points from his opening three games in charge.

At the start of October, Cardiff finally got a win on the board, recording a 1-0 victory over Millwall, before they earned a respectable 1-1 draw at Bristol City.

For the first time since March, the Bluebirds have managed to go two successive matches without defeat, a step in the right direction when sitting at the foot of the table.

Now within four points of 18th position and with fellow strugglers Portsmouth the visitors to the Cardiff City Stadium after this game, there is a real opportunity to kick-start their season.

As far as Plymouth are concerned, their supporters can be delighted with how Rooney has took to life at Home Park, collecting 11 points from his opening nine games.

Their home form has proven to be key with Sunderland, Luton Town and Blackburn Rovers all being defeated between the September and October international break.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of their performances is in defence, the Pilgrims only conceding more than once on one occasion in their last eight outings.

Furthermore, their only two defeats in five have been by 1-0 scorelines at West Bromwich Albion and Burnley, emphasising that this is a group of players who are competitive in every game that they are playing.

Nevertheless, with just one point and one goal coming from four away fixtures, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Cardiff City Championship form:
LLLLWD

Plymouth Argyle Championship form:
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Barring any further injury issues, Riza will give consideration to selecting the same Cardiff XI from the Bristol City draw.

Jesper Daland is an option to return in central defence, but Dimitrios Goutas and Calum Chambers may retain their places for the time being.

The likes of Callum O'Dowda and Aaron Ramsey are among five players who are likely to stay on the unavailable list.

Plymouth are expected to be without winger Ibrahim Cissoko after he picked up an injury with Netherlands Under-21s.

Youngster Freddie Issaka could be handed his first Championship start of the season on the left flank in what may prove to be the only alteration.

We must surely win this one?

Might get a draw;

1-1

Gray

Not confident at all with our away form. Plus Cardiff are no mugs and will be nowhere near the bottom 3 in the run-in. Defeat for Argo live on Sky.

Cardiff City 1-0 Argo

Bit of a tricky one this Cardiff fighting for there life’s down there already and what with our away form got a feeling this one could go pear shape if we’re not careful..but that said wazzas got a start being a bit more attacking away from home make more use of the of the wing backs like at home and not just try to defend & not lose the game …but got a feeling it could go 1-0 either way

Bundu and Galloway injured

Letting Colwill run the show-ffs get a grip of him or could be a very long afternoon. Think i'll go and play golf instead.

Game over.  We are  f***ing shite.  Cardiff will be 3 or 4 up by half time.

Cissoko sent off!

WTF???

Cissoko at fault for first, inexplicable defending, turned away from his man for absolutely no reason. Second was a bit soft but a decent finish, then disco cissoko got himself sent off spitting his dummy out after having the ball kicked at him while on the floor. Game over, 4-0 now. We are shit away from home.

Now 5 FFS!

Maybe this is the real Argo, not the one that beat Luton and Blackburn? Way to perform for the 3,500 who made the trip.

This is completely unacceptable

Have to agree Freathy, Argyle were woeful.

Freathy wrote:

Maybe this is the real Argo, not the one that beat Luton and Blackburn?  Way to perform for the 3,500 who made the trip.

This is completely unacceptable

There's certainly a huge discrepancy between away and home performances and results and it must be addressed if Argyle are not to slip into a prolonged relegation battle-they certainly aren't going to win every home match and these away results are going to lead to more and more pressure as the season goes on. Even before Cissoko was sent off [utterly immature and over the top,Cardiff were trying to provoke him as can could be seen by their number 47 grizzling and giving the thumbs up after the incident-Ng should have been punished BTW] they were all over Argyle in midfield, makes you wonder if the shape and personnel of the team has to change in order to grind out some results. Whatever, that certainly was unacceptable and very morale sapping-a very bad afternoon indeed.

Freathy wrote:

Maybe this is the real Argo, not the one that beat Luton and Blackburn? Way to perform for the 3,500 who made the trip.

This is completely unacceptable

after all the eurhoria of the last couple of weeks by some of our fans that with won 3 games reality has finally set in …Can real slim wazzer please stand up please stand up ( lyrics by Eminen) Lol