City unchanged. Wigan preview

Last updated : 29 September 2003 By Michael Morris
Cardiff City v Wigan Athletic
Tuesday 30th September 2003.
Ninian Park, ko 7:45pm.

Graham Kavanagh took a knock against Crewe but will be fit to play against newly promoted Wigan at Ninian Park on Tuesday night.

Peter Thorne is again expected to be able to take his place in the starting line up after only being passed fit late on Saturday. Thankfully Thorne did play and scored a couple of goals.

City then expect to be

Alexander, Weston, Vidmar, Gabbidon, Barker, Langley, Boland, Kavanagh, Bonner, Earnshaw and Thorne.

The bench shows we have a slight lack of strength in depth with 3 of the 5 subs defenders. We are struggling in the midfield department with Jason Bowen, Gareth Whalley and John Robinson all injured.

Subs (if the same as Saturday) Margetson, Prior, Croft, Collins, Campbell.

Wigan are the surprise package this season, after a defeat and a draw in their opening games they went on to record 6 straight wins before snatching a late draw at Coventry on the weekend. They have also progressed to round 3 of the Carling Cup.

Coming into the game they are in second place on goal difference behind Sheffield Utd. Cardiff are 9th with a top 6 place a possibility with a win.

Top half of the table
Last game played on
Sunday 28th September 2003
PldHomeAwayOverallPtsGD
WDLFAWDLFAWDLFA
1Sheffield United 94101342115562118920+9
2Wigan Athletic 93104131110562114620+8
3West Bromwich Albion 94001022125761215919+6
4Norwich City 94009312257522141017+4
5West Ham United 9220313027552210617+4
6Sunderland 9301622128651314816+6
7Nottingham Forest 93119420277513161116+5
8Millwall 103208312268442141116+3
9Cardiff City 930112312279423191214+7
10Reading 9211632127642313914+4
11Burnley 102037821289415151713-2
12Crewe Alexandra 9301541134841491213-3

Last season Wigan easily won Division 2 with their solid approach and ability to keep clean sheets. They've done pretty well so far this season at doing the same, in the run of 6 victories mentioned above 5 of them were wins to nil.

The Latics are no slouches in front of goal either. They have the excellent Nathan Ellington up front and have added to their squad by bringing in Geoff Horsfield from Birmingham City. Ellington has scored in 5 of the 8 games he's played in so far this season. Horsfield's best contribution to date was the winner against West Brom at the JJB a fortnight ago.

Last season both games ended in draws, 2 - 2 at Wigan and nil nil at Ninian Park in our last regulation home game of the season.

Full head to head history.
At Cardiff (9)At Wigan (9)Overall (18 matches)
ResultsTotal%ResultsTotal%ResultsTotal%
Cardiff333.33Wigan555.56Cardiff422.22
Wigan111.11Cardiff111.11Wigan633.33
Draws555.56Draws333.33Draws844.44
GoalsTotalAv.pgGoalsTotalAv.pgGoalsTotalAv.pg
Cardiff141.56Wigan151.67Cardiff191.06
Wigan101.11Cardiff50.56Wigan251.39
Records
Highest Aggregate5Cardiff 3 - 2Wigan1982/1983
Highest Cardiff score:3Cardiff 3 - 0Wigan1995/1996
Highest Wigan score:4Wigan 4 - 0Cardiff2001/2002
SeasonDateHomeScoreAwayCompetition
2002/2003Sat 26 AprCardiff0 - 0WiganLeague Division Two
Sat 05 OctWigan2 - 2CardiffLeague Division Two
2001/2002Sat 16 FebWigan4 - 0CardiffLeague Division Two
Fri 12 OctCardiff2 - 2WiganLeague Division Two
1999/2000Sat 23 OctWigan2 - 0CardiffLeague Division Two
Sat 25 SepCardiff0 - 0WiganLeague Division Two
1996/1997Mon 31 MarWigan0 - 1CardiffLeague Division Three
Tue 27 AugCardiff0 - 2WiganLeague Division Three
1995/1996Sat 16 MarWigan3 - 1CardiffLeague Division Three
Tue 05 MarCardiff3 - 0WiganLeague Division Three
1989/1990Sat 03 FebCardiff1 - 1WiganThird Division
Sat 23 SepWigan1 - 1CardiffThird Division
1988/1989Fri 07 AprWigan1 - 0CardiffThird Division
Fri 30 DecCardiff2 - 2WiganThird Division
1985/1986Sat 08 FebWigan2 - 0CardiffThird Division
Sat 19 OctCardiff3 - 1WiganThird Division
1982/1983Sat 16 AprWigan0 - 0CardiffThird Division
Sat 11 SepCardiff3 - 2WiganThird Division

There will be the usual coverage of the game with Cardiff City World offering live internet commentary to subscribers and Radio Wales covering all three Welsh Nationwide League clubs in their midweek sport programme. There will also be chatroom coverage and messageboard reaction on this website.

There are 7 other Nationwide League Division 1 games being played on Tuesday. Leaders Sheffield Utd are at the new Milton Keynes home of Wimbledon and 3rd placed West Brom entertain Millwall.

Walsall play Gillingham on Monday night while there are three games on Wednesday, one of them involving our next opponents Crystal Palace who travel to West Ham United.

Since losing to Bradford in the opening home game of the season Cardiff are averaging 4 goals per game in the league at Ninian Park, that would be a huge ask against Wigan but very nice if we could acheive it.