This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

FLW's Cardiff City fan pundit Ben Johnsey believes it's his side's game to lose this weekend against league rivals Reading and has predicted a 2-0 victory, speaking ahead of tomorrow afternoon's clash at the Select Car Leasing Stadium.

The Bluebirds head into this tie following their 1-0 victory against Norwich City, needing to ride their luck at times but managing to secure three points with their new-look squad.

Their defence will have been particularly pleased to keep a clean sheet against the likes of Teemu Pukki and Todd Cantwell, with Max Aarons also proving to be a threat for the Canaries but failing to break through Steve Morison's side's defence.

 

 

The Royals, on the other hand, lost 1-0 against Blackpool last weekend in a frustrating manner having had a couple of opportunities to get themselves back into the game.

Paul Ince's side are struggling with injuries going into this tie, with the former England international confirming that one or two further players will miss out at the weekend on top of Sam Hutchinson, Femi Azeez and Lucas Joao who are already confirmed to be out of action.

This is one reason why FLW's Cardiff City fan pundit Johnsey is confident going into this game in Berkshire - and believes the Welsh side can keep another clean sheet.

He said: "Heading into this one on Saturday, I think it's going to be Cardiff's game to lose.

"Cardiff coming off a 1-0 win against Norwich with a real confidence boost, a lot of standout signings come in, the likes of Cedric Kipre, Jamilu Collins, Ryan Allsop and now a new signing in Kion Etete.

"Cardiff are really going to be full of confidence beating a side coming down from the Premier League, while Reading look a bit deflated.

"They lost 1-0 to Blackpool on Saturday and they have since had multiple of their signings not be registered into their first-team squad with injuries to go along with that as well.

"I think this should be a routine 2-0 win for Cardiff City and though in the Championship, nothing is ever guaranteed, I think Cardiff are going to definitely be the favourites heading into this one."

The Verdict:

Johnsey is right to identify the difference in morale at this stage - because the hosts had plenty of optimism coming into this season after managing to recruit some much-needed additions.

However, this optimism has disappeared in the past week, not just because of the result against the Seasiders but also because they haven't got Naby Sarr and Mamadou Loum available.

This, on top of their injury problems, has soured the mood on social media and only a win tomorrow may help to change the atmosphere. With this in mind, they need to start picking up points sooner rather than later to ease nerves about a potential relegation battle.

Cardiff must be on cloud nine after beating a recently-relegated side though. A strong defensive performance was a real highlight as well as the fact you could clearly see Morison's stamp on his first-team squad.

An away win seems like the likely outcome at this stage, especially with Ince's side not showing too much in the final third against Bloomfield Road with Joao missing.