Nottingham Forest will lift the curtain on their home campaign on Saturday when Cardiff City arrive in the East Midlands.
Neil Harris will bring his side to the City Ground with both sides looking to get over 2-0 defeats on the opening day of the season.
Cardiff lost at home to Sheffield Wednesday last weekend, whilst the Reds were beaten by QPR.
Supporters won’t be at the City Ground on Saturday and Forest will look to claim three points behind closed doors.
Ahead of this weekend’s game, we caught up with Benjamin James from ‘View From The Ninian’ to give us the lowdown on Cardiff City ahead of tomorrow’s game.
Nottingham Forest News (NFN): Last season you reached the play-offs, was that deemed par for the course under Neil Harris when he arrived?
Ben James (BJ): It was probably below the fans expectations at the seasons start but when Harris came in, we didn’t look in great shape. Warnock had spent a bit of cash and the squad looked pretty down and out. But Harris came in and turned us into one of the form sides in the division – with a bit of help from Albert Adomah. We deserved the playoffs for our second half of the season performances but it was still a bit of a shock to end up fifth when we’d hoped to scrape into 6th.
NFN: How have you assessed your new manager, is he the man to take you back to the Premier League?
BJ: We’ve started this season poorly but at the end of last season, he was slowly evolving the way we played. We were actually trying to pass the ball more, trying to hold on to it rather than just going direct. I like what he’s trying to do but this season hasn’t started well. If he can get us playing like we were last year, I’d fancy us to get back into the Premier League…
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NFN: Like ourselves, you suffered defeat on Saturday, was that something of a hangover from the play-off defeat last season?
BJ: I think so. We’ve had new players come in and go off on international duty already. We’re missing a few as they recover from injury and our season ran on slightly longer than your so it feels like we are still getting up to speed and recovering all at once.
NFN: Who are your key players we need to watch out for today?
BJ: It depends on injuries. Lee Tomlin is our creative outlet and if he turns it on, he’s always crucial. Big things are expected of big Kieffer Moore and if we can get playing to his strengths, then he could be crucial to our success.
NFN: If money was no object, which Forest player would you love to see lining up at Cardiff City?
BJ: Even though he might be coming into the twilight of his career, I’m gonna say Lewis Grabban. As a team, we’ve not had a striker score more than 10 goals in a season since the pre-red kit days and Grabban is pretty consistent at doing that.
NFN: Finally, what will the score be today?
BJ: I’m saying 2-0 Cardiff in the Adomah derby. Kieffer Moore twice.
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