Forest Star Looks Forward To Cardiff City Clash

Cardiff City entertain Nottingham Forest on Saturday with the Reds looking to improve their away form in a bid to continue their ascent up the Championship after a slow start. Forest`s home form has been good, but they continue to struggle on their travels and will no doubt be mindful of Cardiff City`s home record.

The Bluebirds have lost just once at the CCS this season – however, that was in the previous fixture against fellow high flyers Swansea City. That was a big derby clash, and as ever – form goes out of the window somewhat but it was a far from polished performance and we struggled to deal with the suspension of Jay Bothroyd.

Forest`s left-back Ryan Bertrand is on-loan from Chelsea and looks a fine prospect for the future. He has spoken of the difficulty his side will face as they prepare for back-to-back away games. However, the defender also revealed he is eager anticipating the upcoming challenges. He told the Nottingham Post:

‘We have Leicester after we go to Cardiff, so it just gets tougher really. But these are the games you want to play in as a professional footballer.’

‘The atmosphere was really good against QPR, the crowd was fantastic and it will be the same against Cardiff and Leicester.’

‘These are the games you should be looking forward to.’

The ‘tough` away fixtures Bertrand refers to are a trip to the home of the league leaders, followed by another away game against their close local rivals in Sven Goran Eriksson`s resurgent Leicester City.
Nottingham Forest are currently in 10th position, after improving their form of late. These two games give them an opportunity to push on and move into the play-off positions with two favourable results. However, back-to-back defeats would see them slump back down the table, increasing fears of an inconsistent season ending in mid-table mediocrity, and serve to increase supporter unrest at the City Ground.

It is always a tough fixture against Nottingham Forest, and they possess a very good side – easily capable of challenging for promotion in the Championship. We conceded a late goal to a fine Lewis MgGugan strike last season, in the dying moments at CCS. In the context, a draw against Forest is not a bad result but the Bluebirds will surely be looking to exploit the inconsistent away form, and look to take three points from a team who could end up as promotion rivals later in the season.