Nigel Adkins has a plethora of players to select from.
One player however doesnt look likely to be available for selection and that is new signing from Doncaster Rovers Billy Sharpe, rule 40.2 of the football league states that for a player to be elegible he needs the forms to be recieved by the League by noon on the day previous to the game, although strangely for loan signings this is only 3 hours prior.
So with out the services of Sharp what line up will Adkins put out, the first big question will be who plays in the back four, perhaps the only two definites in their own positions will be Fraser Richardson and Aaron Martin, the first headache is who will partner Martin in the centre of defence, will Adkins stick with Danny Fox in which case Dan Harding will continue to deputise at left back, or will he have the option of Jose Fonte who is rumoured to be near a return, an outside bet could be Jaidi who suddenly appeared on the bench at Millwall having been the forgotten man with no news of his injury, but surely Adkins wouldnt throw Jaidi who has not kicked a ball in anger since the last day of last season into such an important game.
Midfield is like Picadilly Circus at rush hour there are so many options, in no particular order, Guly, Cork, Schneiderlin, Hammond, Falque, Reeves, Holmes, De Ridder, Lallana, Puncheon and even rumours that Chaplow is fit, Adkins has an abundance of riches there, so perhaps its even more vital he gets it right.
Up front Lambert is a given, but will he partner him with David Connolly or Tadanari Lee, if i had to make a call I personally would go with Connolly and continue Lee's introduction to English football from off the bench.
So my line up would be
Davis
Richardson, Fonte, Martin, Fox
Puncheon Cork Schneiderlin Lallana
Lambert Connolly
Subs. Bialkowski, Lee, Hammond, Guly, Chaplow
Of course I have made a couple of assumptions regarding fitness there.
As to the game itself, it is one that we have to win, if we do so then we will be back on course, if we lose then we could be looking at dropping outside of the top six if we also lose at Birmingham on Saturday, judgement day is here, two months of appalling form have to be put behind us and we have to rediscover that form and team spirit we had in the first third of the season, lets be blunt its all about team selection here, if we get it right then we are quite capable of winning the game, but if we get it wrong then it is a big big setback.
Cardiff despite being third are no great shakes on the road, like us there position is built on goor home form, so far they have won only four of their 14 games away from home, drawing 8 but losing only 2, with 17 goals for and 13 against, it shows a pattern of a team who are tight at the back and look to go on the break, their high level of draws shows that they are perhaps not as adventurous as they are at home, shades of our good selves.
So we need to put them to the sword, of course there is still a long way to go in this season, but certain games make seasons and this is one of them, win it and our task has just got a little easier, lose it and its got a whole lot harder.