Whittingham Waits But Loves Facing Foxes !!

Cardiff City`s influential midfielder Peter Whittingham is still waiting for his first goal of the season, having failed to find the net in the Bluebirds impressive start to the new Championship campaign. Although a midfielder, Whitts made a huge impression last season after contributing an outstanding 25 goals in league and cup games and ending the season as joint top scorer in the division.

Whilst he is unlikely to ever emulate that feat, Whitts will still want to contribute significantly to the goals sure to come from the likes of Chopra, Bellamy and Bothroyd. That said, Whittingham is operating in a new position, a completely different proposition to the wide left berth he occupied last year. In that role, he was able to benefit from the pace of Chopra and the width of Burke on the right, creating space for his late runs into the box. This year, he is being utilised more centrally and has thus far excelled in dictating play and controlling the tempo from midfield.

Tonight`s opponents Leicester City provide an excellent chance for Whittingham to open his account for the season and the Foxes will be sick of the sight of the former Aston Villa man. Due to the play-off semi-final double header, and an FA Cup tie – we actually played Leicester City on five occasions last season!

Of those 5 encounters, Peter Whittingham actually scored in four of them, failing only in the 1-0 away defeat to get his name on the scoresheet. The first clash, a 4-2 win for the Bluebirds in the FA Cup saw Whittingham score a fluke effort, direct from a corner. We lost away in early March, failing to score before a welcome 2-1 win at home courtesy of a close range effort from Whitts and the infamous Gabor Gyepes rugby tackle!

Both sides made it to the plays-offs and were pitted against each other in the semi-finals. Whittingham continued his exploits with a wonderful curled free-kick away from home, before he levelled the tie from the penalty spot to send the game to extra-time and penalties (Thanks again Yann Kermogant!).

Four goals in 5 appearances against a promotion chasing club was no mean feat for Whittingham, he certainly enjoyed playing against Leicester City last season – hopefully he can carry on that statistic and grab a goal or two in another Cardiff City victory tonight.