Cardiff City vs Huddersfield Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City StadiumAttendance21,821.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football Red Button and the Sky Sports app from 7.40pm on Wednesday; Kick-off is at 7.45pm
Tuesday 20 August 2019 16:44, UK
Cardiff face Huddersfield in the Sky Bet Championship on Wednesday evening, live on Sky Sports.
Coverage gets underway live on Sky Sports Football Red Button from 7.40pm, while kick-off is at 7.45pm.
Cardiff could be without summer signing Marlon Pack at home to Huddersfield. The former Bristol City midfielder was forced off during the first half of Sunday's 3-0 defeat at Reading with a leg injury.
But Lee Peltier, who missed the trip to Reading after having an injection in his ankle, is set to return and replace Leandro Bacuna at right-back. Callum Paterson faces a late check and Isaac Vassell hopes to make his first Cardiff start after building up his fitness since his deadline-day move from Birmingham.
Former Cardiff captain Mark Hudson will be in caretaker charge of Huddersfield following the departure of Jan Siewert three games into the Sky Bet Championship season.
Hudson is contemplating handing a debut to Frazier Campbell, who was signed as a free agent by Siewert and who has been training with the full squad for the last week. The once-capped England striker was a team-mate of Hudson's at Cardiff, scoring 16 goals in 52 games for the Bluebirds between 2013 and 2014.
On-loan Chelsea midfielder Trevoh Chalobah hopes to make his first league start for the Terriers after impressing off the bench during the 2-1 home defeat to Fulham, while Rajiv Van La Parra is also in contention.
Neil Warnock's players probably haven't enjoyed adjusting to life back in the second tier just yet. Wigan came from behind to beat them 3-2 on the opening day, but they beat Luton 2-1 the following weekend. On Sunday though, their frailties were laid bare as George Puscas inspired Reading to a 3-0 win at the Madejski Stadium.
The relegation hangover looms even larger for Huddersfield, who haven't won a competitive fixture of any kind since 26 February when they beat Wolves 1-0 at the John Smith's Stadium. They were defeated by Derby on the opening day, earned something of a reprieve with a 1-1 draw against QPR, but suffered an embarrassing 1-0 Carabao Cup loss against League One Lincoln and followed that up with another 2-1 home defeat, this time to Fulham.
Neil Warnock: "If you defend like we are defending, you will lose games. We've been poor at the back. It was the same at Wigan when otherwise, we could have won that game.
"We've got so many games coming up quickly now: Huddersfield, Blackburn, Fulham. So, we haven't got time to dwell on it. We've got to move on and overcome the problems that we've been given today [in the 3-0 defeat to Reading]. We need to make sure we give the fans something to cheer about on Wednesday."
Huddersfield interim head coach Mark Hudson: "I'm looking forward to this week, but I'm not looking too far beyond that. I'm enjoying it and will put my stamp on things. The players have been receptive...they've worked hard, and it'll be a clear message of what we'll do in the game.
"We want to show the club and the fans something. We want to give them something to shout about. I think I have my own ideas on the way we should play and the identity of this club. We need to get back to showing that and getting the fans behind us. It's a fresh start for everyone, they all have to buy into that and then have to show me what they've got. I'll make decisions based on that."
It took just an hour after the full-time whistle for Huddersfield to announce Jan Siewert's tenure was at an end, with his contract terminated shortly after the 2-1 defeat to Fulham at the John Smith's Stadium on Friday night. And the managerless Terriers now face another difficult trip against another fellow relegated side in the shape of Cardiff on Wednesday.
The task they face now is challenging; the simple fact is that they must develop a winning habit to survive in this division and the fact just four wins have presented themselves in 51 competitive fixtures does not make for good reading. Interim boss Mark Hudson is the early front-runner to replace Siewert, but whether his potential appointment would be more than a quick-fix remains to be seen.
Cardiff are unbeaten in their last 11 games against Huddersfield in all competitions (W7 D4 L0) since a 0-1 defeat in January 2003.
Last season, both of Cardiff and Huddersfield's Premier League meetings ended goalless despite 36 shots attempted over the two games.
Cardiff's 0-3 defeat to Reading last time out was their joint-heaviest league defeat under Neil Warnock outside of the top-flight, having also lost 0-3 to Alex Neil's Preston in September 2017.
Huddersfield Town have won none of their last 13 league games against Welsh opponents (W0 D5 L8), failing to score in 10 of those games, including each of their last five.
Neil Warnock has only lost two of his 14 league matches against Huddersfield (W8 D4 L2), a club he managed between 1993 and 1995.
Karlan Grant, who has scored each of Huddersfield's three league goals this season, has netted seven times for the Terriers in league matches since his debut in January 2019; in that time, no other Huddersfield player has managed to score more than one league goal.
David Prutton predicts: 2-0 (17/2)
