Premier League Survival Before Cup Glory

Cardiff are progressing nicely in the FA cup this season, we’re now into round five and have a winnable game at that stage, but the priority has to be Premier League survival.

I’ve not hidden my cup aspirations, and I don’t think that it’s beyond possibility that we could go all the way in this competition, but I’ve got to agree with Aron Gunnarsson’s views on BBC Sport that Premier League survival is the main thing for us this season.

Beating Bolton, and moving into round five is a positive, but the focus is now back on this and the game with Manchester United tomorrow.

‘It’s always good to get a win – there’s not been many lately.

‘Our performances have been getting better but we need a result.

‘The FA Cup might be one where may even nick a trophy. But now all our focus is on Man Utd on Tuesday.’

If we’re going to ‘nick a trophy’ with the FA cup this season we’ll firstly have to overcome the current holders Wigan in round five. They know a thing or two about winning that at the expense of Premier League survival. Having said that the FA cup progress, and eventual success they made last season wasn’t the reason they ended up being relegated was it.

The FA cup can remain a positive distraction for us, it could become a negative though if we keep progressing but do that with replays as that could lead to a fixture pileup and that’s something we’d all be keen to avoid.

Looking ahead to that Manchester United game at Old Trafford if we could get all three points that would be a nice platform to spring from, if that doesn’t prove to be the case there are other games coming up that we could capitalise upon.

‘We’re rock bottom and we need to get a win. We need to get the three points and to start with that on Tuesday would be brilliant.

‘It’s going to be a hard game, we know that. They’re trying to obviously lift themselves but we’re looking forward to it.

‘But then again we’ve got some games coming at home and hopefully that will be an advantage for us.’

It’s not been easy for Manchester United this season, and they’re still a great side but I don’t think we’ve got to go to Old Trafford with any fear tomorrow.

It’ll be a great night for OGS but it could be an even better one for Cardiff as, even if I’m not expecting it, I really wouldn’t be surprised if the Bluebirds went and won.