Cardiff City v Rotherham. Match preview

Last updated : 18 February 2017 By Michael Morris

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock is set to be without striker Rickie Lambert against his former club Rotherham as the Bluebirds seek a third straight win after away victories over Leeds and Derby.

Lambert is struggling with a back injury and Warnock revealed the former Liverpool and West Brom player will see a specialist next week.

Warnock is hoping for better news from Greg Halford and Sean Morrison, who picked up knocks in the thrilling 4-3 win at Derby.

Cardiff duo Tom Adeyemi and Semi Ajayi are currently on loan at Rotherham but will not be eligible to face their parent club.

Joel Ekstrand is still awaiting his debut for bottom-of-the-table Rotherham and may come into contention after spending the Millers' last two matches on the bench.

The Swedish defender was not used again on Tuesday when Paul Warne's men - cast adrift by 12 points and facing near certain relegation already - led twice before suffering a hammer blow as in-form Huddersfield grabbed the winning goal deep into injury-time.

A raft of hamstring injuries is not helping Rotherham.

Aymen Belaid, Darnell Fisher and deadline-day signing Carlton Morris are the men afflicted.

Match facts

  • Cardiff are unbeaten in their last four home league games against Rotherham (W2 D2) and have lost just one of their last 10.
  • Rotherham have won just one of their last nine league meetings with Cardiff (D4 L4), 2-1 in September 2015.
  • Rotherham have won only three of their last 28 league games (W3 D4 L21) and all three of these victories have come at the New York Stadium.
  • Away from home, Rotherham are winless in 18 matches in the Championship and have won just two points from a possible 54 in these games (W0 D2 L16).
  • If Rotherham fail to win this game it'll be 19 away games without a win in the league and will be their longest such run since October 1978 (27 successive away league games without a win).
  • No side has won more points in the Championship in 2017 than Cardiff City (18).
  • Cardiff have scored a league-high 23 goals from set-pieces this season.