Bangor City v. Cardiff City - Match Preview

Success?
By Chris O'Brien
January 24 2005

Cardiff City take a break from the Football League Championship scrap with a visit to Farrad Road. Lennie Lawrence looks set to make wholesale changes as the Bluebirds take on Bangor City in the FAW Premier Cup quarter-finals.

Cardiff City kick-off their FAW Premier Cup campaign with a visit to Farrar Road on Tuesday evening. Lennie Lawrence looks set to make wholesale changes to the Bluebirds XI, following a trend of disrespect for the BBC-backed competition. The quarter-final clash is eagerly anticipated on the North coast. Bangor are one of the better-supported clubs in the Welsh Premier, and their supporters will be hoping to cause an upset against a mixture of youth and reserve players from the Cardiff City squad.

Led by former England and Manchester United star Peter Davenport, Bangor City have underachieved in recent years. They currently lie 5th in the Welsh Premier table, 13 off leaders and favourites Total Network Solutions. The club have a fair amount of potential, but are some way away from challenging for the crown of Welsh champions.

The squad travelling to Bangor has been announced and sadly it's another very weak selection of players. Finnish Under-21 prospect Toni Koskela and young strike duo Stuart Fleetwood and Danny Thomas are some of the few names fans will recognise. Highly-rated midfielder Nicky Fish should start in midfield.

City Squad: Lee-Barrett, Allison, Anthony, Parslow, Rewbury, Huggins, A Taylor, Fish, Koskela, Kift, Thomas, Fleetwood, Parkins, Ingram, Hartley, McDonald, Easter, Jenkins, R Morgan, Cronin.

With Andy Campbell crying out for some confidence, I see no reason why the out-of-favour forward is not making the trip. Tony Warner has had a few howlers and should be given a chance to impress, whilst the likes of Robert Page and Tony Vidmar need games under their belts. The whole thing baffles me.

The FAW Premier Cup has failed to take off the ground and has never managed to replace the glory days of the Welsh Cup for the Principality-based exile clubs. Sam Hammam has threatened to pull the plug on City's participation in the Premier Cup unless the much-beleaguered tournament is rewarded with European football. This would surely kill off the competition, though how we can turn our noses up at the £100,000 winners cheque is beyond me.

This season, for the first time, the competition abolished the group stages and just proceeded with a straight knock-out forward. As per usual, the Bluebirds, the Jacks, Wrexham and Welsh Premier winners Rhyl received byes to the last eight. Wrexham have already gone through after a narrow 2-1 away win at Haverfordwest. The Robins always show the competition full respect, and thus have already lifted the trophy on five occasions since 1997.

The other quarter-final ties see the Jacks visit Caernarfon Town, whilst in a repeat of Sunday's top-of-the-table league clash, TNS entertain Rhyl. The four semi-finalists will be entered into the hat for the draw, with no seedings from that stage onwards. Once again, the final will be played on the home turf of one of the finalists. With Swansea moving home next season, the Premier Cup is now the only hope of a visit to the Vetch Field before the bulldozers move in on the North Bank.