'MATCH THREAD:NOTT'S FOREST v CARDIFF CITY ' UPDATED DAILY '

NOTTINGHAM FOREST V CARDIFF CITY
Championship
3:00pm Saturday 29th August
The City Ground

Team:

Marshall
Peltier Connolly Morrison Fabio
Pilkington Dikgacoi Whittingham Ralls
Mason Jones

Moore
Malone
Manga
O'Keefe
Noone
Amoebi
Revell

Approx 680 Cardiff Fans travellng

Cardiff manager Russell Slade has given striker Kenwyne Jones (ankle injury) a "fighting man's chance" of being available to face the Reds.
City are so far unbeaten in the league and a fit-again Jones would increase pressure on Dougie Freedman's side.

Some of the injuries are not as serious as first thought

Nottingham Forest will check on Dexter Blackstock ahead of the visit of Cardiff.

" UPDATED DAILY "

This match is ticket only, tickets can be bought up to 5pm on Friday.

Cardiff City: Russell Slade and his backroom staff will assess whether Scott Malone and Kenwyne Jones are ready to return before finalising the team at Forest.

Malone missed out against Wolves when he was sent home suffering from a virus, while Fabio produced a man of the match display in his absence.

Jones is battling to recover from an ankle injury and Slade says he has a ‘fighting man’s chance.’


Bruno Ecuele Manga made a welcome return to action last weekend, but he is likely to have to wait for his first start which means Sean Morrison and Matthew Connolly remaining in the heart of defence.

Craig Noone was struggling through illness in the midweek cup tie with MK Dons, while Lee Peltier and Aron Gunnarsson also picked up knocks, but each should be available if needed.

The only other question as far as the visitors are concerned comes in attack, where Sammy Ameobi will be pushing for a start following his first goal for the club last weekend.


Cardiff City stars Lee Peltier and Aron Gunnarsson are major doubts for Saturday's Championship clash at Nottingham Forest after suffering injuries on League Cup duty at MK Dons.


City have a few injury worries.


City suffered a series of mishaps at MK Dons with Aron Gunnarsson, Lee Peltier and Stuart O’Keefe suffering injuries, while Craig Noone had to go off to be ill during normal time.



Latest News


Match Preview

Cardiff City stars Lee Peltier and Aron Gunnarsson are major doubts for Saturday's Championship clash at Nottingham Forest after suffering injuries on League Cup duty at MK Dons.

Gunnarsson was initially named in the starting 11 to face MK Dons but was replaced in the Bluebirds midfield by Joe Ralls moments before kick-off after suffering an injury in the warm-up.

Then at half-time, Lee Peltier, who has started every Championship game at right back so far this season, sustained an injury while warming up with his fellow substitutes.

Full back Fabio was also given treatment for a calf problem during extra time.

Possible Lineups

Cardiff City

01 Marshall
03 Fabio
04 Morrison
16 Connolly
28 Malone
13 Pilkington
07 Whittingham
15 Dikgacoi
08 Ralls
9 Jones
10 Mason

Forest

01 de Vries
02 Lichaj
05 Mills
25 Hobbs
31 Pinillos
14 Ebecilio
04 Mancienne
18 Antonio
10 Lansbury
38 Osborn
34 Walker

The Opposition

Nottingham Forest Football Club is a football club in Nottinghamshire, England that currently plays in the Football League Championship. The club, often referred to simply as Forest or Nott'm Forest have played home matches at the City Ground, West Bridgford in the continuous urban area of Nottingham since 1898.

Founded in 1865, Forest were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889 and joined the Football League in 1892. Forest won the FA Cup in 1898 and 1959. Their most successful period was under the management of Brian Clough between 1975 and 1993, winning the League, back to back European Cups, four League Cups and two Full Members Cups. In recent years the club have fallen on harder times, and have been outside the Premier League since 1999.

2015/16 Latest Results

Cardiff

TUE 25 AUG 2015 - LEAGUE CUP MK Dons 2 - 1 Cardiff
SAT 22 AUG 2015 - CHAMPIONSHIP Cardiff 2 - 1 Wolves
TUE 18 AUG 2015 - CHAMPIONSHIP Blackburn 1 - 1 Cardiff
SAT 15 AUG 2015 - CHAMPIONSHIP QPR 2 - 2 Cardiff
TUE 11 AUG 2015 - LEAGUE CUP Cardiff 1 - 0 Wimbledon
SAT 8 AUG 2015 - CHAMPIONSHIP Cardiff 1 - 1 Fulham

Forest

Championship Bolton 1-1 Nottm Forest Sat 22 Aug
Championship Nottm Forest 0-0 Charlton Tue 18 Aug
Championship Nottm Forest 2-1 Rotherham Sat 15 Aug
League Cup - First Round Nottm Forest 3-4 Walsall Tue 11 Aug
Championship Brighton 1-0 Nottm Forest Fri 7 Aug

Last 5 meetings

2014/2015 Sat 02 May Nottm. Forest 1 - 2 Cardiff City Championship
Sat 18 Oct Cardiff City 2 - 1 Nottm. Forest Championship
2012/2013 Sat 13 Apr Cardiff City 3 - 0 Nottm. Forest Championship
Sat 20 Oct Nottm. Forest 3 - 1 Cardiff City Championship
2011/2012 Sat 31 Dec Nottm. Forest 0 - 1 Cardiff City Championship

Previous Highlights



Match Odds

Forest 7/5
Draw 9/4
Cardiff 19/10

The City Ground



Key facts

Club: Nottingham Forest FC
Opening: 1898
Capacity: 30,576 seats

History and description

Nottingham Forest moved to the City Ground in 1898 after unsuccessfully trying to find a permanent home in previous decades.

The City Ground officially opened on the 3rd of September 1898. It was initially a rather small ground consisting of mainly wooden stands.

Some improvements were made in the following decades, mainly in expanding the terraces, but the ground only really started to develop from the 1950s. The first was a new East Stand (later Executive Stand), which opened in 1957.

The opening match of the new East Stand also meant a new record attendance for the City Ground. A total of 49,946 people saw Forest play Manchester United that day.

In 1962, a fire heavily damaged the wooden main stand, but it was successfully restored. Six years later, another fire completely destroyed the same stand, which was subsequently rebuilt. The stadium could at that time hold about 43,000 people, of which 17,500 seated.

The successes of the Brian Clough era made further developments possible, resulting in the construction of the large Executive Stand in 1980. The Executive Stand got later renamed Brian Clough Stand in honour of Forest’s most successful manager.

Developments continued in the early 1990s with the construction of a new all-seater stand at the Bridgford End and in 1994 with the new Trent End at the other end of the ground.

The City Ground was one of the playing venues of the 1996 European Championships, during which it hosted three first-round group matches.

In recent years, the club has investigated the possibilities of building a new stadium. These at one time became rather concrete as part of the England 2018 World Cup bid, but the failed bid and recurring resident opposition at proposed sites have thus far halted any progress.

Tickets

Sat. 29th August 2015. KO. 3pm

Available to current Season Ticket Holders and Gold / Junior Bluebird Members only.

Bridgford Stand – Lower Tier

Ticket Prices:
Adults: £28.00
Seniors 65+: £20.00
Under 18’s: £14.00
Under 12’s: £7.00

Disabled Allocations:
Prices as stated above + Carer free of charge

Tickets On Sale
9am - Mon. 10th August
0845 345 1400
http://www.eticketing.co.uk/cardiffcity


Guess the Score / Attendance

Post your predicted score/attendance below

0-2. City.

Never like this match for some reason, nightmares from years ago maybe.

2-1 City, if we play like we did vs QPR and Wolves. Scoring first is a must.

15010 attendance.

5-3

5-3

2-0 Forest

& the natives get restless

Play our best team

Forest 1 City 3

Sadly I see 2:1 Forest.

Cant see Marshall being here for that match

Sadly I see 2:1 Forest.

Cant see Marshall being here for that match

Same here, I think this is a game we'll lose by the odd goal. If Marshall does'nt play, I think we may have seen the last of him in a City shirt.

1-2.

Forest have not been playing well and are due a change.

2-0 Forest. ( Due to Slade bemoaning the extra 30 mins in the League Cup )

Draw .

5-6 thriller

Forest 0-4 Cardiff ameobi hattrick and tamas

Yeah let's all head for La La land ... 0-7

Yeah let's all head for La La land ... 0-7

class I'll go city 2 forest 2

Cardiff City stars Lee Peltier and Aron Gunnarsson are major doubts for Saturday's Championship clash at Nottingham Forest after suffering injuries on League Cup duty at MK Dons.

City to bounce back forest 0 city 2 Jones .mason 21600 bloobirds

Can you pay on the day?

This match is ticket only, tickets can be bought up to 5pm on Friday.

Nottingham Forest's tactical approach could well be influenced, to some degree, by the fitness of two physically formidable front men.

Kenwyne Jones, Cardiff's powerful striker, is fighting an ankle injury but has a good chance of playing.

While Forest's own Dexter Blackstock had been ruled out with cracked ribs.

His return would give Forest an experienced figure to play that target man role – even if Tyler Walker put in an admirable shift at Bolton.

But it is Cardiff's approach that could be more significantly influenced by the availability of Jones.

His replacement in the team would be Federico Macheda, a player who has often been a thorn in Forest's side, who would also present a very different threat.

Having made six changes to his starting line-up at Bolton, Freedman may shuffle his pack again, as Forest return to home turf.

David Vaughan staked his claim for a return to the side with a superb goal off the bench at Bolton, presuming he is available for selection after pulling out of the Wales squad for family reasons. As too did Chris Burke, with a lively display down the right flank after coming on.

Fans will hope it is not their last chance to see either Michail Antonio or Michael Mancienne play for Forest.
Nottingham Forest v Cardiff City: Match in focus
By Nottingham Post | Posted: August 27, 2015

Tyler Walker in action for Nottingham Forest against Bolton.
Tyler Walker in action for Nottingham Forest against Bolton.
Comments (0)
Nottingham Forest's tactical approach could well be influenced, to some degree, by the fitness of two physically formidable front men.

Kenwyne Jones, Cardiff's powerful striker, is fighting an ankle injury but has a good chance of playing.

While Forest's own Dexter Blackstock had been ruled out with cracked ribs.

His return would give Forest an experienced figure to play that target man role – even if Tyler Walker put in an admirable shift at Bolton.

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But it is Cardiff's approach that could be more significantly influenced by the availability of Jones.

His replacement in the team would be Federico Macheda, a player who has often been a thorn in Forest's side, who would also present a very different threat.

Having made six changes to his starting line-up at Bolton, Freedman may shuffle his pack again, as Forest return to home turf.

David Vaughan staked his claim for a return to the side with a superb goal off the bench at Bolton, presuming he is available for selection after pulling out of the Wales squad for family reasons. As too did Chris Burke, with a lively display down the right flank after coming on.

Fans will hope it is not their last chance to see either Michail Antonio or Michael Mancienne play for Forest.

Forest team news

Andy Reid played his second under-21 game at the start of the week, completing 77 minutes in the 2-1 defeat at the hands of Coventry.

But the midfielder is unlikely to be risked on Saturday, following 11 months on the sidelines with his persistent groin problem.

Dougie Freedman will hope that Dexter Blackstock shakes off a rib problem to play a part in the squad. While Jamie Ward's call-up to the Northern Ireland international squad is an indication that the forward is close to shaking off his nerve-related hamstring issue.

David Vaughan pulled out of the Welsh squad for family reasons, but could still be available closer to home this weekend. Britt Assombalonga (knee), Chris Cohen (knee) and Matty Fryatt (Achilles) are out.

Cardiff striker Kenwyne Jones is fighting an ankle injury, but has not been ruled out yet. If he does miss out, Federico Macheda has shaken off his own problem and would be available as a replacement.

There has been a stomach bug in the Cardiff dressing room this week, but no players are expected to be ruled out.



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3-1 to us. Based on our last outing there and also VT's call to Marshall this week. He's gonna score the third in 90+3min.

Nottingham Forest
If not for a late Stephen Dobbie strike in the 1-1 draw away at Bolton Wanderers last time out, Forest would have been sitting nicely level on points with Queens Park Rangers in sixth place.

As it is, that goal - which came in the fourth minute of added on time - leaves the Reds with a steady five points from the opening 12 on offer.

Two draws, one defeat and a sole win does not offer a great deal of insight into exactly which end of the table Forest are likely to be battling at this season, though the pessimists among the fanbase will point to one win in 12 league outings as evidence that more needs to be done.

Talk over the future of star player Michail Antonio - who has had a hand in 28 goals for his side - certainly has not helped Dougie Freedman, with the wideman recently being left out of the squad to face Charlton Athletic.

West Ham United are the latest team to have reportedly shown an interest, while local rivals Derby County are also rumoured to have made one enquiry already this summer.

There is also a strong suggestion that Michael Mancienne has become the subject of a bid by fellow Championship side Fulham, testing Freedman's resolve a little further ahead of next week's transfer deadline.

In terms of movement in the opposite direction, Forest have so far had to make do with free transfers and loan signings, helping to strengthen a squad that slipped away badly after a promising spell when Freedman first took over.

In many ways, this weekend's meeting with Cardiff - a side Forest have struggled against of late - could effectively decide the strength of the Reds' start to the campaign, with a victory needed in front of home supporters to provide some further positivity ahead of the international break.

Recent form (all competitions): LLWDD

Cardiff City
Heading into last week's meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Slade was desperate for a first league win to put a positive spin on his side's start to the campaign.

Three draws on the bounce for the Bluebirds poised the age old question for supporters to answer - glass half empty or half full?

As it turns out, three points against Wolves in a fine team display leaves City in a far more promising position just outside the playoff zone.

Defeat at MK Dons in the League Cup in midweek did not do too much to knock supporters' confidence, though Slade is still trying to win over supporters some 10 months after taking over.

The former Leyton Orient chief's first game in charge came against an unbeaten Forest side in South Wales, with the Bluebirds producing a home display that was arguably only bettered by what was witnessed in the highly professional 2-0 win over Wolves.

In fact, it was a 2-1 victory at the City Ground on the final day of last season which left Cardiff fans feeling a little more optimistic at the end of what had been a turbulent campaign on the whole.

Slade has certainly turned his group of players into a more settled outfit since then, cutting the wage bill and bringing in just two new senior faces, one on which - Gabriel Tamas - joined this week on a free contract.

Rejecting all approaches for goalkeeper and star man David Marshall also sends out a strong message for the season ahead, as the Welsh outfit look to make it eight league games without defeat when they travel to the Midlands.

Recent form (all competitions): DWDDWL

TEAM NEWS


Michall Antonio of Nottingham Forest battles with Micah Richards of Aston Villa during the Pre Season Friendly match between Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa at City Ground on August 1, 2015

Bruno Ecuele Manga made a welcome return to action last weekend, but he is likely to have to wait for his first start which means Sean Morrison and Matthew Connolly remaining in the heart of defence.

Craig Noone was struggling through illness in the midweek cup tie with MK Dons, while Lee Peltier and Aron Gunnarsson also picked up knocks, but each should be available if needed.

The only other question as far as the visitors are concerned comes in attack, where Sammy Ameobi will be pushing for a start following his first goal for the club last weekend.

Britt Assombalonga's long-term absence continues to be a problem for Forest, while a question mark over the fitness of Dexter Blackstock could see Forest go Tyler Walker up front once more.

With plenty of speculation regarding the future of Antonio, and less than a week to go before the transfer window closes, it is possible that the in-demand winger will be omitted for a second time.

Can't go to this one unfortunately due to finances, safe trip to all those going

Forest 0-2 Cardiff City

Jones and Ralls

Cardiff City: Russell Slade and his backroom staff will assess whether Scott Malone and Kenwyne Jones are ready to return before finalising the team at Forest.

Malone missed out against Wolves when he was sent home suffering from a virus, while Fabio produced a man of the match display in his absence.

Jones is battling to recover from an ankle injury and Slade says he has a ‘fighting man’s chance.’

Nottingham Forest defender Jack Hobbs says his team-mates are ‘looking sharp’ ahead of this weekend’s visit of Cardiff City.
Forest welcome the Bluebirds to The City Ground on Saturday (kick-off 3pm), when they will be hoping to become the first side to beat the Welshmen in the league this season.

And Hobbs says there has been a good atmosphere at the training ground in the build up to the match.

The 27-year-old told Forest Player HD: “The mood’s been great. There was no midweek game this week so we’ve had a good opportunity to get some hours out on the training pitch. The lads are looking sharp.

“I think Cardiff will be very well organised. They’ve got some good players; the likes of Peter Whittingham, who is known for his passing range.

“It’ll be a tough game for us but it’s one we’re looking forward to. We want to put our stamp on it again, get on that front foot and hopefully pick up three points.”

Hobbs has been a reliable figure in the heart of Forest’s defence since his arrival from Hull City in 2013, although he has at times been troubled by injury.
And, having achieved that this summer, he believes he and his team-mates have had the best possible preparation.

Hobbs said: “The difficulty comes when you’ve had an injury and you don’t have that foundation – you get going again and other parts break down.

“Physically, pre-season was important for us all. Everyone got through it well and hopefully that will be a good foundation for this season.”

Nottingham Forest will check on Dexter Blackstock ahead of the visit of Cardiff.

Slade Happy Ahead Of Forest Clash

Friday 28th August 2015

Vital Football

Manager Russell Slade has said he believes Cardiff are in a good place ahead of the game against Nottingham Forest tomorrow.

Speaking to the Official Site ahead of the game, Slade said he was hoping for a similar result to the final day of last season where we took a two one victory at the City Ground, and although he's expecting a tough test, he's confident we can do just that.

'Pre-season gives you an opportunity to regroup as a squad and as a team. They may be more organised and more together as a result. They`ve had a week free of fixtures too, which I think helps. It will be tough as the City Ground is never an easy place to go. However, we got a wonderful result there last time and we`ll be looking to repeat that. Let`s hope we manage to pull that off tomorrow as well.'

Moving on to praise the squad as a whole for their fitness and sharpness levels at the moment, Slade again repeated that he'd been happy with the performances so far this season but he still knew further improvement could be achieved.

'We have been solid, looked organised and played well off a good structure. We`ve been able to score in all of our games too, so we go into the match in good nick and we`re looking forward to the game. The fact that we can now keep going and look a threat until the end of the match shows you what you need to know about our fitness levels.'

Slade added that he felt the players themselves would admit that they felt a lot better and fitter at this stage of the season compared to last year, and he also went on to talk about the arrival of new signing Gabriel Tamas.

'We just wanted some experienced cover along the back. And I don`t think they come more experienced than 63 caps for your country that are ranked seventh in the world. He can play right-back, right centre-half, left centre-half and left-back - and he`s even played as a holding midfielder, so he is a useful, experienced acquisition.'

The gaffer did confirm that it would take him a little bit to get up to speed given his own fitness levels, so he wouldn't be thrown in and presumably isn't in contention for this weekend as Slade went on to say that he'll be given a few days to focus on fitness and then with the international break coming up, hopefully an in house game can get him some minutes to help.