Following last season’s 21st-placed finish, in which they only ended five points clear of the relegation zone, Cardiff City set out for improvement in the Championship this time around and turned to Erol Bulut to take over as manager.
Despite leading Leeds United away from home in their curtain-raiser, the Bluebirds did endure a slow start to the new campaign, as that contest ended in a draw and they went on to suffer defeats at the hands of Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City in the following two outings, before scoring a first victory of the term at the fourth time of asking at home to Sheffield Wednesday, with Ryan Wintle netting the decisive goal from the penalty spot deep into injury time.
After heading into the break on the back of a narrow defeat away at high-flying Ipswich Town, Bulut’s men have been in inspired action on their return to action in September, firstly picking up a first South Wales Derby win over rivals Swansea City in over two years, thanks to Ollie Tanner‘s 71st-minute opener and Aaron Ramsey‘s late penalty, before making it back-to-back three-point hauls by beating Coventry City 3-2 at the Cardiff City Stadium thanks to Dimitrios Goutas‘s early opener and goals from Karlan Grant and Kion Etete.
Seeking to make it three straight league victories for the first time since early 2022, the Welsh outfit then faced a tough trip to Sunderland on Sunday, and after the game looked set to end goalless at the Stadium of Light, they were able to leave with all three points as Mark McGuinness popped up with an 87th-minute winner, before they were most recently in EFL Cup action on Wednesday, bowing out in the third round due to a 5-2 defeat away at Blackburn Rovers, despite twice drawing level through Callum Robinson and Etete.
Now with their focus fully on their Championship pursuits, Cardiff will look to make it four on the bounce on Saturday as they aim to build further momentum and break into the top six in the coming weeks.
They meet a Rotherham United side who travel to Wales in search of just a second league win of the campaign, having endured a tough start to the new season under Matthew Taylor.
The Millers achieved their aim of securing survival last season, eventually finishing 19th with a six-point lead over the bottom three, and they again set out to maintain their second-tier status this time around but quickly found themselves battling around the bottom end of the division as their opening four games produced just a single point.
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The Yorkshire outfit were then able to score an important first win of the campaign prior to the international break, beating Norwich City 2-1 on home turf at the beginning of September, only to suffer a 2-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town on their return to action, and their struggles continued in the following trip to Millwall, as goals from Ryan Longman, Zian Flemming and Tom Bradshaw condemned them to a 3-0 beating at The Den.
Then sitting on just four points from seven outings, Taylor’s side most recently faced a difficult test at home to league leaders Preston North End, who had won six straight league matches, at the New York Stadium on Saturday, but they were able to halt the visitors’ winning run and take a commendable point from a 1-1 draw, having initially gone ahead through Jordan Hugill before Liam Lindsay drew Preston level on the stroke of half time.
While they can take a degree of confidence from being just the second side to hold the Lancashire outfit so far this term, Rotherham will know that it is wins they require to avoid being cut adrift at the bottom end of the Championship as the season progresses, and they will go in search of a second three-point haul of the campaign on Saturday with the aim of starting to climb away from the drop zone
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Cardiff City made 11 changes for their trip to Blackburn in the EFL Cup in midweek, and Bulut should revert to a full-strength starting XI in his preferred 4-3-3 shape on Saturday, with Perry Ng, Mark McGuinness, Dimitrios Goutas and Jamilu Collins bound to line up in a back
four after their clean sheet in the victory away at Sunderland last Sunday.Key man Aaron Ramsey, who returned to the club over the summer after 15 years away with Arsenal, Juventus, Rangers and Nice, has missed their
last two league outings after notching up three goals in the first six games of the campaign, and the Welsh international is unlikely to return in time to make the starting XI at the weekend, with Emmanouil Siopis again more likely to rejoin Ryan Wintle and captain Joe Ralls in the centre.
