THE BIG MATCH
BLUEBIRDS SET TO BREAK A 42-YEAR CROWD RECORD FOR WOLVES CLASH PLUS: BLAKEY HITS OUT AT CITY’S TEAM OF THE SEASON SNUB
CARDIFF City are hoping to announce the biggest crowd for any league match in Wales for more than four decades when Neil Warnock’s aces take on Wolves.
Tomorrow night’s blockbuster of a clash could see around 30,000 pour into Cardiff City Stadium for the game between the Championship’s top two.
The Bluebirds have already sold 26,000 tickets for the game and are expecting those numbers to swell significantly further in the next 48 hours.
It could be the biggest attendance for a regular league fixture played in Wales since a Cardiff side managed by Jimmy Andrews took on Hereford in an old Division Three promotion showdown back in April 1976.
A crowd of 35,549 poured into Ninian Park for that game, which the Bluebirds won 2-0. The two teams each subsequently went up.
That gate was treble the attendance of Cardiff’s previous home game, against Preston, which had drawn 12,447.
The biggest league crowd in Wales since then is the 28,680 who watched Cardiff beat Derby 2-1 in April 2016, but the Bluebirds gave away thousands of free tickets for that one.
Cardiff regularly had sell-outs in their Premier League season, with the highest-recorded gate being the 28,018 who watched Luis Suarez score a hattrick in a 6-3 defeat to Liverpool.
But the erection of the new stand has increased capacity by a further 5,000 and such is the demand to watch the Wolves showdown that the Bluebirds have opened the upper Ninian.
Warnock believes the backing from a near-capacity Cardiff City Stadium crowd will be a significant boost to his team, as they seek another crucial three points in the race for the Premier League prize.
As such, the Bluebirds are urging any supporters yet to purchase tickets to join in the history-making occasion and roar on their team.
Wolves and Cardiff are battling neck and neck up at the top of the Championship, each seeking to join the big time for next season.
If Cardiff win, and also take three points from their game in hand, they would have the same number of points as leaders Wolves.
The huge stakes at such a critical stage of the season have engaged the South Wales public, who have been snapping up tickets in greater numbers than normal.
In Cardiff’s title-winning year under Malky Mackay, the best attendance was 26,588 for a 3-0 thumping of Nottingham Forest towards the end of the campaign. Tomorrow night’s gate will easily eclipse that.
Swansea City’s highest league attendance over the past four decades came when John Toshack was in charge and 24,115 watched the Vetch Field clash with Manchester United in January 1982.
Their biggest recorded gate at the Liberty Stadium is 20,972 for a 3-1 triumph over Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool two years ago, when Andre Ayew scored twice.
Newport County and Wrexham have not had anything like the drawing power of the Bluebirds and Swans.
There have, of course, been bigger gates for games in Wales over the past 40-odd years, but not for bread-andbutter league fixtures.
Cardiff played Queens Park Rangers in front of 66,096 fans in a Millennium Stadium play-off final, while 55,419 turned up at the venue for a Swansea v Barnsley play-off.
More than 32,000 packed into Cardiff City Stadium earlier this year for the FA Cup clash with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, while Wales have regularly sold out games in the Welsh capital.