THE OPPOSITION

Under Neil Harris, a run of two defeats in 11 around the restart in June saw Cardiff City reach the Sky Bet Championship Play-Offs, having been 14th when the former Millwall boss took over at the Cardiff City Stadium in November.

The Bluebirds lost out to Fulham over two legs and looked to carry a bit of that disappointment into this campaign, winning just three of their opening 13 and crashing out of the Carabao Cup to Northampton Town in Round One.

However, just as the pressure appeared to grow on Harris, Cardiff hit form. They won four straight, scoring ten and conceding one, to start off this month, and then added a fifth win in six by shading a five-goal affair against Birmingham City at St Andrew's ten days ago. Their most recent outing was a 2-0 defeat to Norwich City on Saturday which leaves them tenth in the table.

Cardiff are the Championship's fourth top scorers on home soil, finding the net 16 times in ten outings, but have also lost four of their opening ten in CF11.

TEAM NEWS

Pontus Jansson is set to return on Saturday while Christian Norgaard made his return after two-and-a-half months out against Newcastle United on Tuesday. Shandon Baptiste (knee) and Mads Roerslev (foot) remain sidelined.

Cardiff will be without eight-goal top scorer Kieffer Moore (hamstring) as well as right-back Jordi Osei-Tutu (hamstring), Lee Tomlin (groin), and Isaac Vassell (foot) for today's game. Josh Murphy (illness) and Junior Hoilett (groin) missed last weekend's defeat to Norwich City but may make today's game.

THE MANAGER

Neil Harris won many admirers for the job he did on a limited budget at Millwall, establishing The Lions back in the second-tier following promotion in 2017. However, after four-and-a-half years in charge, Harris felt he had reached the end of his shelf-life at The Den, resigning in early October 2019. Six weeks later he took over at The Cardiff City Stadium, taking The Bluebirds to the Play-Offs in July.

As a player, the wiley striker spent ten years with Millwall over two spells. He scored 138 goals in all competitions, beating the previous club-record held by Teddy Sheringham. Harris also battled and beat testicular cancer during a playing career that took him to Cardiff City, Nottingham Forest and Gillingham but was mostly spent at Millwall.

PRE-MATCH VIEWS

⚖ Dean Whitestone will be the man in charge this afternoon

🆚 Glen Williams of Wales Online previews The Bluebirds

MEMORABLE MEETING

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