Cardiff City

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Cardiff City’s trip to Rotherham United on Saturday, 4 May - the final day of the Championship season – will kick off at 12.30pm.

All games in the second tier have been brought forward to the earlier kick-off time, with details of potential television coverage to come nearer the time.

Rotherham look doomed to relegation already, with the division’s bottom club a whopping 19 points from safety with eight games remaining this season.

Cardiff, meanwhile, are 11th following last weekend’s defeat at Swansea City, which halted a four-game winning streak.

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Erol Bulut believes Rubin Colwill will become even more effective for Cardiff City and Wales if he improves his decision-making.

The 21-year-old earned a recall to Robert Page's Wales squad last week following his impressive recent form for the Bluebirds.

And Bulut believes the academy product will only get better when he addresses the weaker aspects of his game.

"Rubin is playing the last few weeks really well," said the Cardiff boss.

"Even when he is coming on, he is doing well.

"Rubin is a good player and he will be much, much better if he can fix small details on his game."

When asked what details Colwill needed to work on, Bulut responded: "Decisions! The decisions he makes are really important.

"When he gets the ball, how quickly he makes those decisions, he keeps it too much and has to make better decisions.

"But the only thing he is missing is goals and assists."

Colwill has not featured for Wales since the 3-0 defeat by England in their final 2022 World Cup group match.

He will be hoping to be involved as Wales host Finland at Cardiff City Stadium in a Euro 2024 play-off semi-final on Thursday and a possible final against either Poland or Estonia five days later.

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Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut believes Swansea City defender Harry Darling dived in an attempt to get Bluebirds forward Yakou Meite sent off.

Meite was fortunate not to receive a red card during Saturday's 2-0 derby defeat, having leant his head into Darling's during the first half.

Both players were shown yellow cards.

“I think it was artistic movement from the Swansea player," said Bulut.

"Like this I jump in a pool! I did not think it was a red card.

"You have the fans behind you and shouting. Some referees can get their red card out quickly but he realised it was not a red card and it was a yellow."

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Cardiff City manager Erol Bulut remains no closer to signing a new contract with the club.

Bulut joined on a one-year deal last summer and, with only nine games left this season, has not started talks with the Bluebirds about extending his stay.

The former Fenerbahce boss has said on more than one occasion he is keen to remain - but is uncertain about his future.

"I cannot make a decision because it’s not in my hands," Bulut said.

"The plans the club should make for the new season - transfers, pre-season and things like that - we haven’t had any meetings in that direction.

“I would like to stay, of course, and continue to build with the players.

"When we look back to the start of the season and now, there has been big progress. Normally we should continue with that but this is not up to me. From my side, it’s clear.”

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Former Cardiff and Swansea defender Steven Caulker says the South Wales derby is spoken about “all around the UK”.

Caulker played for both Welsh sides and scored the winning goal in the fixture for the Bluebirds in 2013.

“It’s a game everyone wants to watch. I remember playing in League One at Yeovil and the south Wales derby was taking place and everyone on the bus was checking the score, everyone was shouting out who’s scored and who hasn’t and who they’re predicting to win the game, so it is something that’s spoken about all around the UK and it’s a game which I’m very much looking forward to watching this weekend,” Caulker said.

“In the south Wales derby [in 2013], we played in the Premier League at home in Cardiff for the first game, the atmosphere was intense but I actually felt there were quite a lot of nerves around the stadium in all honesty.

“Our first season in the Premier League, there was lots of excitement, lots of hope for the year that lie ahead, but that particular game I just remember it being really tense until I scored. The place just erupted and then it was back to the pressure of ‘can we hold on?’

“There was similar kind of eruption at the final whistle, there was definitely a different atmosphere to other games in the sense that there were a lot nerves. It’s a game that neither side wants to lose”.

Caulker played every game of Cardiff City’s 2013-14 season in the top flight and played on loan at Swansea from Tottenham in the Swans' first Premier League campaign in 2011-12.

But the former England international says his time in west Wales made his derby goal celebration more muted than usual.

“I’ve still got my man of the match award upstairs, I treasure it. It was a special, special moment. It was slightly strange in the sense that I’d scored in the derby, but I couldn’t celebrate, I still had a lot of respect for Swansea," Caulker added.

“I instantly put my arm in the air because I’d just scored a goal and then realised it’s against Swansea. I put my arm down and ran over to Craig Bellamy and had a fairly mild celebration, but definitely the feeling was unbelievable .

“I’m going to go for a draw [this weekend] and I’m not just saying that to sit on the fence. Cardiff are coming in to it in better form, but Swansea are the home side and I expect to see a couple of goals. I’m going to go for 2-2”.

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Cardiff City will be aiming to create history in Saturday's south Wales derby away at Swansea City.

Neither team had managed a league double in the first 111 years of this fixture, before Swansea claimed the first in 2022 and repeated the trick last season.

This time, Cardiff are hoping to claim their first double having outplayed their arch rivals to win the reverse encounter 2-0 last September.

"It’s a big incentive [the double]," said Ralls.

"It’s a unique, one-off game. We had that feeling in the first game.

"This game can be a springboard for the rest of the season. We are fully motivated."

Ralls is also glad to be coming into this fixture with Cardiff in a more settled state than they have been in recent years.

Erol Bulut will be the first Cardiff manager since Dave Jones during the 2010-11 season to manage the Bluebirds in two league derbies in the same campaign.

"It’s great to have consistency with the manager," Ralls added.

"We have had a great season with the manager. Having that consistency is big."

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The stakes are always high when it comes to the South Wales derby, especially for managers.

Because the last decade of meetings between Swansea City and Cardiff City have shown it is not just bragging rights on the line for bosses in this fixture – it is their jobs.

A remarkable statistic circulated on social media this week, pointing out that Erol Bulut will become the first Cardiff manager to take charge of both derby fixtures in a season since the days of Dave Jones.

But the derby dugout quirk goes further, showing that the last 11 managers to have lost this fixture have not been in place by the time the next derby comes around.

And again you have to go back to Jones’ time in charge of the Bluebirds for the last boss to have been beaten in a derby and still be in the job for the return match.

That came in November 2010 when Marvin Emnes’ goal inflicted a home defeat on Cardiff, only for a Jones-led side to get revenge at the Liberty Stadium three months later via a Craig Bellamy beauty.

Brendan Rodgers was the Swans boss that day but had left for Liverpool by the time the teams renewed rivalries in the Premier League in 2013.

And so the derby ‘curse’ continued with Michael Laudrup and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer both losing games and being removed from their posts by the time the sides met again in the Championship in 2019.

There, Swansea wins under Steve Cooper saw both Neil Warnock and Neil Harris depart before the next fixture rolled around - with a goalless draw in between providing a stay of execution.

And when Cooper’s Swans were upset at home by Mick McCarthy’s Bluebirds, the Welshman had moved on before McCarthy’s trip west the following season.

The man who replaced Cooper, Russell Martin, then proceeded to oversee four straight derby wins against four different Cardiff managers, with McCarthy, Steve Morison, Mark Hudson and Sabri Lamouchi all only managing one derby each.

And while Martin left the fixture unbeaten when he joined Southampton, the curse continued when Michael Duff lasted 11 weeks after a comfortable Cardiff win last September following Bulut’s arrival.

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Saturday marks Luke Williams' turn to try out just how high the stakes are, although he has sampled the passions as part of Martin’s victorious coaching staff.

Meanwhile Bulut has the chance to engineer a first ever Cardiff double in the fixture – something that would no doubt add to the voices backing him for a new contract beyond the summer.

But if history is anything to go by, if there is a winner on Saturday, only one will be around by the next time the South Wales rivals go head to head.

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No matter what happens in Saturday’s south Wales derby, Erol Bulut has made his point at Cardiff City – having already bettered last season’s total.

And they are a whisker away from guaranteeing a better return than the campaign before that.

In fact, the Bluebirds' recent resurgent form has put Bulut’s side in with a chance of their best points return since winning promotion to the Premier League under Neil Warnock.

Back in 2018, Warnock’s winners finished on an impressive 90 points to go up behind champions Wolves – and with nine games to play were some 14 points ahead of where Cardiff’s class of 2024 stand now.

But Saturday’s win over Ipswich Town has taken their current tally to 53 points – four points more than they mustered last term when they finished just a place above the relegation zone.

And it is already level with the 53 they accrued in the 2021-22 season under Mick McCarthy and Steve Morison.

The next yardstick will be the 2020-21 season, when Cardiff finished eighth on 68 points.

That was the year in which there had been worries of being dragged into a relegation fight before Neil Harris was replaced by McCarthy.

Bulut’s team would have to pick up a further 15 points from their nine remaining games to reach that marker.

But what of the last Cardiff side to reach the play-offs? That came in the Covid-affected 2019-20 season when Harris replaced Warnock in November, finishing the season on 73 points. Getting to that total would mean Cardiff picking up an eye-catching 2.22 points per game from now until May.

Interestingly, though, Cardiff are currently only one point further back than Harris’ side were at the same stage of that season.

Back then they went into the final 10 matches still five points off the top six, winning seven of their last ten fixtures to secure a place in the play-offs.

It would take a similarly impressive run to match that feat but, regardless, beating the past two sorry seasons suggests progress is being made at Cardiff City Stadium.

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Cardiff City showed against Ipswich they aren’t ready to give up on their season, according to former striker Nathan Blake.

The Bluebirds’ winter form – including a run of five defeats in six – had seemingly wiped out any hopes of reaching the Championship play-offs.

But Saturday’s comeback win over Ipswich, their fourth victory in succession, has left Erol Bulut’s side five points outside the top six with nine games remaining.

Ex-Wales frontman Blake, speaking on BBC Radio Wales Sport, had been sceptical of the chances of a late surge to the play-offs given the manner of recent performances.

But he was heartened by captain Ryan Wintle’s pre-match claims of not wanting the season to "peter out" – and says they backed it up against the top two chasing Tractor Boys.

“We say it so many times - it’s about confidence,” said Blake on how Cardiff managed to produce one of their best performances of the season to re-ignite top-six hopes.

“I heard Ryan Wintle before the game saying he didn’t want their season to fizzle out - and that’s how they played.

“They played like they know there’s a small gap in the window, a little chink of light, and have said to themselves ‘why not have a go and see where it takes us?’”

Cardiff had impressed enough before a goal from former Bluebird Kieffer Moore looked to have put Ipswich on course for their seventh straight win, only for Wintle and Callum O’Dowda to strike deep into injury time.

Blake added: “It would have been easy after going behind to say we’ve done well against a side who are flying, all the excuses were there for them, but they stuck to their chance and got the winner in the 110th minute. It was a Cardiff City performance, a really good performance.”