Cardiff City open their Championship campaign this Sunday when Kevin Blackwell's Sheffield United arrive at Cardiff City Stadium. Simon Glanville has the opposition facts ahead of the season curtain-raiser.
Sheffield United team news: Darius Henderson will be the big name missing from the Sheffield United after squad after being ruled out at least the next four months with a serious hamstring injury.
Kevin Blackwell will be able to call on a number of new signings though, including former Swansea talisman Leon Britton who joined the Blades on a free transfer this summer. Rob Kozluk, Steve Simonsen, Nyron Nosworthy, Johnny Ertl and Daniel Bogdanovic have also become Sheffield United players of late and will be hoping to make their debuts at the weekend.
Sheffield United last season: It was another season of frustration for Sheffield United last term. Kevin Blackwell's Blades were widely expected to challenge for promotion, but they just missed out on a top-six finish after suffering from inconsistency throughout the campaign.
Highly-rated youngster Ched Evans joined from Manchester City last summer, but his injury problems over the course of the season regularly deprived United of his goal-scoring talents.
The season started brightly with an undefeated run lasting until the middle of September, but after that, defeats came too often for the club to mount an automatic promotion challenge. A top-six finish still looked achievable going into the end of the season, but Blackwell's men ended up falling short of the play-off places by just five points.
Last meeting: Back in March, the play-off chasing Blades visited South Wales for an important clash at Cardiff City Stadium. Jay Bothroyd put 'City ahead on the stroke of half-time with a superb strike after capitalizing on Kyle Bartley's mistake, but United made sure they left with a share of the spoils after Stephen Quinn converted Mark Yeates' dangerous cross on the hour mark.
Teams from last meeting at the Cardiff City Stadium on 24th March 2010:
Bluebirds: Marshall, Quinn, Gyepes, Burke, Whittingham, Rae, Blake, Capaldi, McPhail, McCormack (Chopra 82), Bothroyd. Subs not used: Enckelman, Taiwo, Etuhu, Matthews, Wildig, Feeney.
Sheffield United: Simonsen, Connolly, Taylor (Lowton 89), Nosworthy, Stewart (Yeates 65), Bartley, Quinn, Little (Williamson 71), Montgomery, Harper, Cresswell. Subs not used: Bennett, Seip, Fortune.
Attendance: 18,715.
Head to head record: Going purely on the overall head to head record between Cardiff and Sheffield United, Sunday's showdown could go either way. The Blades have a slight edge having won 28 of the 70 meetings between the two clubs, although the Bluebirds are not far behind on 24 victories. 18 games have ended in draws.
There have been a fair few fiery encounters when 'City and Sheffield United have met in recent years. Last term, Cardiff took the points at Bramall Lane after a seven-goal thriller, while the Blades ran out 3-0 winners at Ninian Park the year before in a bad-tempered game in which the Bluebirds finished with just eight men. In 2007/2008, the two clubs shared six goals in Yorkshire after the hosts scored two late on to salvage a point.
