Cardiff City: Stoke City in preview

-VitalCardiff- interviews Stoke fan Chris oh the Potters’ season to date, their manager and star players:



You’ve had an excellent season – how do you rate your chances of making the
play-offs ?

Only 50-50 at the moment – I’m sure it will go all the way to the wire.



Are you suprised with the progress this season?

Definitely, with the change of owner and manager just before the start of the season most people would have been happy with mid table. Now everyone will be disappointed if we don’t make the play-offs.



Are you concerned about the number of loan players that will leave at the
end of the season?

That’s a concern, but the media etc said that we’d be in a crisis when they were all due to leave just before Christmas, but we kept the likes of Hendrie, Diao and Griffin and signed up others like Liam Lawrence on a permanent contract. Next season is next season.The Chairman has said that we will not be relying on loan signing as he will have time to spend money on permanent signings during the summer.



Parkin scored in your last 3 games, will you miss him after he was recalled
by Hull City?

It’s a blow because no-one was expecting it and he had just hit a good run of form (obviously why Hull have recalled him). In the last couple of games he has replaced Mamady Sidibe who is injured and they’re now trying to get him fit for Saturday. If not, we’ll no doubt play Vincent Pericard (who is coming back from injury himself) or one of the youngsters – Martin Paterson alongside Fuller.



Tony Pulis is a Cardiff City Fan, how do you rate him as a manager?

Many fans were disappointed to see him back as he did not represent a move forward and has a reputation for not playing attacking football, but I like him. He does build a strong defensive team and has also shown this season that he can coach a side that scores goals as well.

Stoke player to watch out for?

Ricardo Fuller. He’s had a hand in every one of the last nine goals we’ve scored.

Prediction for the game?

One thing I’ve learnt from this side is that you can’t easily predict how well or bad they will play on the day, but there is no doubt that we’re on a roll at the moment and are better playing against good teams such as yourselves. My prediction would be 2-1 to Stoke (well it would be, wouldn’t it!)


Thanks to Stoke fans Chris for his views ahead of Saturday’s game between Cardiff City and Stoke City.