Neil Warnock will have an affinity with a coalminer from Blaengarw if his Bluebirds beat Sheffield United this evening (7.45pm).
Remarkably, Cardiff City have only ever won their opening three League matches of a season once during more than a century since the club was formed – and even that was in the regional leagues immediately after the Second World War.
This season Warnock’s men have beaten Burton Albion 1-0 and Aston Villa 3-0 in their first two Championship fixtures and now play United at Cardiff City Stadium
Billy Rees, who had been working as a miner while playing for Carn Rovers before joining City, led his team to those three successive victories at the start of 1945-46. He scored nine goals in Cardiff wins against Bournemouth twice, 9-3 and 5-1, plus Torquay 6-0 before losing 3-0 against Crystal Palace in their fourth game.
The War had ended and this was a peacetime league, but the authorities decided to wait before normal competition was resumed.
Wales international Rees played for City in the wartime leagues and played a key role in their Division Three South title triumph in 1946-47 before moving on to Spurs two years later.
Now Warnock’s warriors are ready to match Rees and his post-War Bluebirds, albeit in a far higher level of football.
The team standing in his way are Sheffield United, the team he supported as a boy and managed for seven years.
Warnock led the Blades into the Premier League before leaving when they were relegated from the top flight.
“I was there seen years and initially we set out to become the best club in Sheffield,” he says. “When I arrived the average attendance was 8,000. When I left it was 25,500, we had a new stadium, almost, and a new training ground.
“It was a fabulous time. The time of my life.
“It’s special when you grow up in short trousers supporting your team. You never lose it.
“But I’ve moved on and I can only think of us winning. I’d love to beat them.
“I’m loving every minute of my time here in Cardiff.
“Chris Wilder is their manager. He is somebody who cares, played for the club and motivates players. That’s why it will be a hard game for us.”
United will have Wales international Ched Evans in their match day squad and he could start after producing a match-winning performance against Walsall in the Carabao Cup.
Evans was among the substitutes against Middlesbrough and was sent on with 20 minutes left as the Blades lost 1-0 with former Cardiff striker Rudy Gestede heading the winner.
Billy Sharp and Leon Clarke started at Riverside, but Evans could step in this evening.
Sharp, aged 31, has scored 52 goals in 91 games for Sheffield United including the only goal in their opening day win against Brentford.
Clarke, 32, can add aerial threat, power and strength whether he starts or goes on from the bench.
New signing John Lundstram is an influential 23-year-old midfield competitor, a former Everton and England under-20 player.
Sheffield United are playing at Championship level for the first time in seven years and have signed seven new players.
They are Evans, Lundstram from Oxford, defender Richard Stearman (Fulham), George Baldock (MK Dons), Enda Stevens (Portsmouth), Nathan Thomas (Hartlepool) and goalkeeper Jamal Blackman (loan, Chelsea).
Warnock could well stick with virtually the starting line-up for the 3-0 win against Aston Villa when Cardiff set up 4-3-3.
Left-Back Joe Bennett limped off injured and is unlikely to be fit with Jazz Richards set to step in.
United will sit back more than Villa and try to hit City in the break which means Warnock could consider whether to recall Lee Tomlin, a playmaker able to unpick defences with quick thinking plus clever flicks and passes.
Cardiff City, probable: Cardiff City: Etheridge, Peltier, Morrison (capt), Bamba, Richards, Gunnarsson, Damour, Ralls, Mendez-Laing, Zohore, Hoilett. Subs: Manga, Tomlin, Halford, D Ward, Kennedy, Murphy (gk), Pilkington.
