Great eight not on Cardiff look to keep
NEIL Warnock insists he hasn’t thought about Cardiff City winning their eighth game in succession when they go to Derby County tomorrow and just wants to get a result without adding to the Bluebirds’ casualty list.
Warnock’s men racked up their seventh win in a row at Brentford in midweek and face a tough task in the east Midlands in the final game before the Championship takes a break for internationals.
Derby have seen their own ambitions hit by a number of dropped points – winless in seven – but the City boss knows Gary Rowett will have his men raring to go at noon tomorrow,
“There’s not many better squads in the whole league than what Gary’s assembled,” said Warnock
“They’ve had games when they’ve drawn where they should have won.
“But it’ll be as tough as you get, Derby away. Lovely stadium, fabulous crowd and I always like going there. I used to enjoy the Baseball Ground as well.
“I keep in touch with Gary, he had a rough deal over the Birmingham thing. I told him then not to get his head down – and what goes around comes around in football. Gary is a very thorough young manager. He loves Derby, it’s like me at Sheffield United, they’re a good fit for each other.”
One key factor in Cardiff’s form has been the improved displays of striker Kenneth Zohore, now proving as unplayable to rival centre-halves as he was at the end of last season.
The Dane took his tally to seven for the season with a second-half strike at Brentford.
Warnock said: “This will be a good game for him on Sunday. I remember Curtis Davies saying he’d had him in his pocket so I’m looking forward to it. I’m hoping Ken is.
“Gary Madine coming in has helped me. His attitude is amazing and as soon as Ken drops his level, Madine is on. Every club needs one of those strikers and who’s to say they don’t play together? Unfortunately I’ve only done it for a few minutes but I’m sure we’ll get the opportunity between now and the end of the season.”
The Cardiff boss will again have a long of injury absences, while loan man Craig Bryson is unable to play against his parent club. But he insists he is taking the run-in as whole.
“We’re not going to risk anybody,” he said. “Aron Gunnarsson is training with us now, he’s in the mix of it and it’ll be good to see him back in the fray. He’s going to play the first half with Iceland next week to see how it goes.
“We will have eight games left after the window and if we can get Gunnarsson and Joe Ralls back and so on. It will make it difficult for me, but I’ve told the lads, I’ll just be picking the best 11 and 18 for each game. It has to be like that and it’s better to be like that than not having a choice.
“Ralls was training well, I saw him and Jazz Richards training well in the gym. If we can get the likes of Ralls and Gunnar back for the last eight games, it’ll make my job more difficult - but it’s better being like that than not having a choice. If we can get through Sunday without any injuries, that’ll be great.
“The main thing is just to try and get a result if we can.”
And Warnock has nothing but praise for his squad, who have coped in the absences through the season.
“When we have lost players, we have other players coming in,” added Warnock. “Players like Loic Damour the other night and Yanic (Wildschut) coming. You have to have a squad to cater because sod’s law means you can lose four players.
“That’s what’s happened, but players have come in and we haven’t changed, they have just fitted in. I think it’s because the way we train.
“It’s a very good spirit, that’s the reason we are where we are. We’ve got some difficult fixtures on paper, we’ve got the worst run-in of everybody. So we don’t get carried away.
“There will be losses between now and the end of the season, but we’ve got to fight and enjoy it. When you start expectations, you’re likely to disappoint, so we don’t have any.
“I’ve not heard any talk about automatic promotion. But as a group we’ve earned the right to be where we are.”
Warnock is delighted that his side have given the Cardiff City fans something to cheer, with as many as 3,000 expected at Pride Park tomorrow.
He added: “We’ll be taking a cracking following on Sunday. We’ve lit the fuse at the minute, Brentford was super with all those fans and looking at the noticeboards they’re booking their tickets and getting on their bikes now.”