Ex-Bluebird vows to stall City’s progress
FORMER Cardiff City academy player Andrew Hughes is fired up by the prospect of denting the Bluebirds’ play-off hopes with Preston this weekend.
The Lilywhites left-back was born and raised in the Welsh capital and joined the club’s junior pathway at seven years old, progressing through the ranks then as a left-winger.
But at 15, after six years with the club, his dream of playing for his boyhood team was cut short when he was released, eventually moving to Newport County where he spent eight seasons and made more than 150 appearances.
After two seasons at Peterborough he headed north to Deepdale, where he has become a mainstay for Alex Neil on the left-hand side of defence.
His job this weekend will be to stop the likes of Albert Adomah, Junior Hoilett and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, all of whom were rampant for the Bluebirds in the 2-0 win over title contenders Leeds United last weekend.
It’s a hugely-important clash for both sides, with Preston sitting in the top six only on goal difference above their opponents Cardiff City this weekend.
But if that wasn’t motivation enough for Hughes, the stark memory of being cut by the Bluebirds 13 years ago serves only to fuel further his desire to beat them this weekend.
“There’s no attachment to Cardiff for me no more,” Hughes said ahead of this weekend’s crunch Championship clash.
“You’ve always got that kind of ‘I’m going to come back and bite you in the future’ attitude, so hopefully that’ll be the case. It makes me just want to beat them more, to be honest.
“I was 15 when I left, just before you get offered a scholarship or not.
“I don’t really support anyone, yeah I tried to watch Cardiff whenever they were on the TV in the Premier League, but now they’re in the same league there’s nothing more than I want than to come away from Deepdale with three points on Saturday.”
Hughes, 28, has enjoyed a very steady career trajectory since leaving the Bluebirds all those years ago.
Now a regular in the Championship, there has even been some murmurings that he is on Ryan Giggs’ radar for the Wales national side.
And the left-back, who is currently dating Love Island 2018 star Kendall Rae-Knight, has detailed just how ‘heartbreaking’ it was to be released by the Welsh capital club, but also believes that moment was the best thing that has happened to him.
“Cardiff is mainly a rugby place and there wasn’t much football going on,” he told the club..
“Most of my PE lessons were rugby, but I wasn’t the best at it. I was always more about football and I used to go to Cardiff City with my dad.
“Most of my family are City fans, they are Cardiff through and through.
“I began at the centre of excellence, I was a left-winger rather than a leftback then, and it changed into an academy while I was there.
“I was really young, nine maybe. You have a meeting with the manager at the end of every season and get told if you are coming back.
“Most years I was asked back, but then, at 15, I was told I was being released for being too small.
“I wasn’t very big at that time – my growth spurt didn’t come until I was 16 – but I say to this day, leaving Cardiff at that age and going out and playing first-team football was probably the best thing which happened to me.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was heartbreaking at the time, but it makes you grit your teeth more and pick yourself up and go again and I think it stood me in good stead.”
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