Cardiff City news 04/08/01

Sat 4th August 2001 - Wycombe, 1 week away.

Only 1 week to go. After a pre season of 6 proper first team friendlies City emerged with 5 wins and one draw. 15 goals scored and only one conceded (and that was an own goal).

The first 4 games against Merthyr, Athlone, Longford and Carmarthen were traditional pre season warm ups. The games against Palace and Coventry were much tougher games and City came through well. Palace were beaten 4 - 0 at Ninian Park and then Coventry were beaten by an Andy Legg goal in front of over 9,000 supporters.

The new signings have been great, especially Alexander in goal, Prior in defence and Kavanagh and Hamilton in midfield. Maxwell, Simpkins and the improving Jeanne have not had full chance to prove themselves but they will.

Next week attention turns to Wycombe. Last season they were FA Cup semi finalists, only a 2 - 1 defeat against Liverpool prevented them from coming to the Millennium Stadium final last May.

The Chairboys are managed by Lawrie Sanchez, amazingly another of Sam's crazy gang (how many of them were there). This one is special though, he scored Wimbledon's winner at Wembley in 1988.

Wycombe have had a poor pre season, they have only won once in 5 games. They opened up with a 2 - 1 defeat by Spurs, that was followed by defeats against Crawley, Shelbourne and Bohemians of Dublin. Their sole success was a 1 - 0 win today at Aldershot Town.

Wycombe today signed Gavin Holligan from West Ham. The 21 year old was released by the Hammers after spending time on loan at Orient and Exeter amongst others. It has been reported that Sanchez has bid Ł200,000 for former City striker Chirs Greenacre, the Mansfield hit man was in brilliant form last season in Div 3 but Mansfield are said to have rejected the Wycombe offer.

Last time in Div a couple of seasons ago Wycombe took the honours over City. The Bluebirds were beaten 3 - 1 at Adams Park and only managed a 2 - 2 draw at Ninian Park. The first ever meeting of the clubs saw a City win in the FA Cup in 1975 when Wycombe were non league.

Ticket sales for next week (inc season tickets) are approx 10,000 already. Wycombe have 2,000 tickets so only 8,000 left to buy for City fans. A lot of clubs would love to sell 8,000 tickets for a game, we are worried that that is all we have left.

Next Saturday, August 11th, 2001. 20,000 capacity, 18,000 City fans I'm sure will be there plus however many Wycombe sell.

If you are a City you must be there, be part of the dream.