Wednesday 27 March 2013

Cardiff Game a Major Test for Season

The players’ desire to earn a top-six spot this season will be put to the test on Tuesday night when Leicester travel west for a crunch match against Championship leaders, Cardiff.

The Foxes had their promotion hopes dented last weekend with Sheffield Wednesday’s deserved 1-0 victory at the King Power – we were just not there and, although Nigel Pearson’s boys created chances putting them away, winning has been a real problem of late.

You could see Saturday’s defeat coming: after narrowly nicking a draw with Leeds, who are 161/10 for promotion on Betfair, last midweek, the lessons of our defeat to Ipswich clearly had not been learned. Missed chances from David Nugent and Michael Keane proved it again would not be our day, while a clinical finish like Connor Wickham’s was always on the cards.

The loss means we’ve won just once in the past seven and our form threatens to drop us out the top six if we don’t get something on Tuesday.

Granted, our last three games have been closely contested but if we want to win promotion we must eke out victories as we were doing in September. Foxes fans in the betting world are well aware that the playoffs aren’t secured yet and momentum heading into those clashes can make or break success at Wembley.

Pearson must get his midfield organised for Tuesday to stifle Cardiff’s Aron Gunnarsson and Tommy Smith from finding the strikers. Both Fraizer Campbell and Heidar Helguson are dangerous on their day while Craig Bellamy still has pace despite his age.

The game, which comes a day after another interesting matchup, Burnley v Hull, will be won or lost in the middle of the park and, in Daniel Drinkwater and Andy King, we do have the cover we can trust. Hopefully, Nugent and co. have their shooting boots on, for a single goal may make all the difference to our Premier League hopes this Tuesday.

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