Match Preview: Cardiff City v Aston Villa

Who are we playing?
Cardiff City

Where are we playing?
Cardiff City Stadium, Tuesday 7.45pm

Can I go?
Tickets on general sale at a hefty £35 a shot and £20 for concessions.

Can I watch it live on the telly?
You certainly can if you (or your pub of choice) have the delights of BT Sport who are screening the game. You'll have to put up with that lanky Norwich fan that used to do the Formula One and the commentary is likely to be marred by the monotonal delights of Michael Owen's droning analysis, but hey, it's gotta be better than a rubbish stream...

Pressure

Big game?
Massive!

All games fought out between teams in the bottom half are massive these days, but this is a chance for Villa to complete a double over the Welsh side and it's certainly a six-pointer.

Villa fans' disappointment at the woeful form this season is rapidly turning to rage and with a long gap until the next match, Paul Lambert will be desperate to placate angry fans with a good showing here. A defeat could lead to open rebellion in the ranks of the claret and blue support.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær - a man many Villa fans hoped would take up the Villa Park reins - has been installed as Cardiff boss since our last meeting and he'll be hoping that some canny moves made towards the end of the transfer window will be enough to grab the three points, though Saturday's three-nil thumping by fierce local rivals Swansea will be hurting badly.

Do Cardiff City have any famous fans?

Not really. Best we could come up with here was the bloke who created SuperTed, one Mike Young but they are hardly blessed with a plethora of Welsh celebrities prepared to pledge undying allegiance to club. There is, of course, enthusiastic politician Neil Kinnock, but the teddy bear is probably more popular.

We've got tea-making dynamo Mrs. Doyle off of Father Ted.

Mrs. Doyle comes to the boil

So we win.

Who's playing for us?
Ryan Bertrand came off worst from his argument with a goalpost which should lead to Joe Bennett making his first start of the season. Lambert's failure to get a centre half in as cover in the January window means he'll probably be forced to start Clark and Baker when he probably prefer to leave at least one of them out. However it's his ineffective and unproductive midfield that is his biggest headache.

Who's playing for them?
Villa old boy Peter Whittingham will be looking forward to facing his former club while Zaha will relish running at our back line. Gary Medel proved to be a handful in the Villa Park encounter.

Any useless stats?

Of course, here you go:

• We have beaten Cardiff on 25 occasions and drawn 5 while they can claim 19 victories over us.

• The game marks Villa's first ever visit to the Cardiff City Stadium.

• You have to go back to Christmas 1974 for Cardiff's  last win over us as they ran out 3-1 winners at Ninian Park. Chico Hamilton got our consolation goal after Cardiff went 3 goals up in the first half hour of the Second Division encounter.

• Villa's most impressive victory over Cardiff came in an FA Cup 3rd Round tie in 1929. Goal machine Pongo Waring got on the scoresheet and two goals came from Joe Beresford as we ran out 6-1 victors.

He said, She said...
"We have the belief and desire to bounce back, which we’ll look to do on Tuesday night. The character is there in my squad and with the supporters behind us, I’m sure we’ll get the results we all want" Ole Gunnar Solskjær

"It is what it is - everyone will take points off each other and if we can hold our nerve, we'll be fine." Paul Lambert

Prediction
Going for a 1-0 Villa win.