By Paul Jones
Cardiff City boss Neil Harris is hoping his team don’t make it a miserable hat-trick of defeats to clubs anchored near the bottom of the Championship when his side heads to Rotherham today.
Defeats at Coventry City and Wycombe Wanderers when they were both propping up the table put the skids under the Bluebirds manager and he knows a fourth defeat in a row could push him over the edge.
“We are expected to beat teams near the bottom of the league. We didn’t take Coventry or Wycombe for granted,” said Harris.
“It was a poor performance at Coventry, who were two off the bottom, and we gave away a bad goal. Then we gave away two cheap goals at bottom of the table Wycombe.
“If we want to be in the top six you have to win certain games and I would expect to beat teams in the bottom three. As a manager, if you don’t win matches you are always going to get questioned.
“The aim this weekend is to beat a team that is below us in the table. The longer we go without winning the tougher it gets to make the top six.
“We’ve lost three in a row and I don’t want it to become four. I think it’s a huge game in my tenure at Cardiff City.
“I want to win the game. It’s the midway point of the season, it’s going to be after 23 games, I want to look at the league table and go right we have some work to do.
With Keiffer Moore still ruled out with a hamstring injury Harris is set to revert to a 3-5-2 formation and take a more direct route to try to stop the rot.
Those four wins in a row that took Cardiff to within spitting distance of the play-off places in November and December are becoming a fading memory.
“I’m looking at the new year with optimism, but we will have to stand up to the fight at Rotherham. They are the biggest team in the league,” added Harris.
Cardiff will not have captain Sean Morrison available for Rotherham after the defender sustained an ankle injury at Wycombe.
The 29-year-old is yet to have a scan to determine the extent of the damage.
Wales international Harry Wilson, who is on loan from Liverpool, is also an injury concern.
