Date and Time: Saturday 5th August (15:00 KO)
Venue: Pirelli Stadium
Referee: Geoff Eltringham,
Cardiff City travel to Staffordshire as they chase an opening day victory over Nigel Clough’s Burton Albion.
The Bluebirds who have promotion on the agenda for the upcoming season will want to get off to the best of starts with a win over Burton Albion who have been tipped for relegation.
Unfortunately for Cardiff though, they’ve not recorded an opening day victory for five years with the last victory coming against Huddersfield Town, the season in which Cardiff won promotion to England’s top flight.
The Bluebirds will be backed by a strong following of over 1000 fans after selling their allocation in Burton’s compact Pirelli Stadium.
It’s a clean slate for both teams after Cardiff’s mid-table finish last season and Burton Albion’s survival, despite not being expected to remain in the division.
Burton Albion have two ex-Cardiff players in their ranks with both having indifferent spells during their time in the South Wales capital.
Stephen Bywater had a short-term loan at the club due to a shortage of goalkeepers and was part of the Cardiff side that lost 3-0 to Reading in the 2010/2011 Championship play-offs.
Ben Turner spent five years as a Bluebird and was part of Cardiff’s promotion-winning side in the 2012/2013 season, as well as scoring the equalising goal in the League Cup final against Liverpool back in 2012.
Burton Albion had a solid defensive record last season but it was goals that were lacking for Clough’s men with only five other sides who scored fewer than Burton in the division last season.
Going into the season, Cardiff have suffered just one defeat in pre-season, a 2-1 away defeat to Shrewsbury Town despite taking the lead originally.
The Bluebirds did have a successful tour of Cornwall though, with victories over Bodmin, Tavistock and Football League side Plymouth Argyle.
Burton, like Cardiff played Shrewsbury and suffered the same fate by losing to a singular goal back in July.
The Brewers played a total of nine pre-seasn friendlies and most recently recorded a win over 2015/2016 Premier League Champions, Leicester City as summer-signing Hope Akpan was on the score sheet, alongside Burton forward Lucas Akins.
TEAM NEWS:
Burton Albion will be without summer-signing Liam Boyce who signed from Ross County has picked up an injury during pre-season which will see him miss a majority of the competitive season.
Jazz Richards and Loic Damour were both carrying small injuries in Cardiff’s friendly against Livingston last Friday but all are expected to be in contention for the season opener.
Kadeem Harris has been ruled out for three months with an ankle injury which will require an operation, and Matthew Connolly will miss out with a short-term injury.
Cardiff are without striker Rhys Healey who is out with a long-term injury as he recovers from tearing his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in last season’s 5-0 win over Rotherham United.
RECENT MEETINGS:
August 2010: Cardiff City 4-1 Burton Albion (AET)
October 2016: Burton Albion 2-0 Cardiff City
January 2017: Cardiff City 2-0 Burton
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS: