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Welcome to our only Ninian Park pre-season
fixture of the 2008/09 campaign, which will
always be remembered as the end of an era in
our beloved and iconic stadium.
One of Europe's leading clubs is here this evening with Ajax
of Amsterdam our visitors for a high-profile prestigious
friendly encounter. There have been many famous teams,
players and personalities at Ninian Park since the ground
was opened in September 1910 and we welcome former
Dutch International striker Marco Van Basten and his squad
at the start of our last-ever season at this ground. Our new
stadium develops rapidly just a couple of hundred yards
away, and while the end of Ninian Park will be a sad
occasion for many people, an exciting future is ahead.
RETURN TO ALGARVE
Our success in winning the Algarve Challenge Cup recently
will mean that we will be invited back as holders next July to
defend the trophy. For the record, the four sides taking part
earlier this month were ourselves, Celtic, Middlesbrough
and Guimaraes. It was not a knock-out tournament, but
each side played two games, with three points for a win, a
point for a draw, and a point for each goal scored. Our 2-1
win over Guimaraes on July 22nd gave us a total of five
points, while our 1-0 win against Celtic on July 24th gave us
another four points - total of nine to give us the Challenge
Cup by a four-point margin from Guimaraes whose win over
Middlesbrough and their two goals gave them five points. In
addition to the Algarve Challenge Cup, we also played a
match on July 19th against Vitoria de Setubal, drawing 1-1.
A full record of our first-team, reserves and academy
pre-season matches will be included in our match-magazine
for the opening Coca-Cola Championship match against
Southampton a week tomorrow.
NEWCOMERS
We have signed so far goalkeeper Tom Heaton on a
season's loan from Manchester United, full-back Miguel
Comminges from Swindon Town, defender Darren Dennehy
from Everton, forward Ross McCormack from Motherwell,
and left-side midfielder/full-back Mark Kennedy from Crystal
Palace. And during the summer second-year trainee Jon
Brown signed full professional forms.
OUT ON LOAN/DEPARTURES
Following Willo Flood's season-long loan at Dundee United
in 2007/08, he is remaining there for this season and is
joined by Warren Feeney who will also be spending one
season with them. As for our departures, Aaron Ramsey
went to Arsenal, Robbie Fowler is currently with Blackburn
on a trial-contract, Trevor Sinclair left us as did Michael
Oakes. David Forde went to Millwall, Matt Green to Torquay
United, while Matty Smith was released.
BIRTHDAY BOY: TOBY
Taking up a spot in the birthday box tonight is Toby Panesar
who along with his friends will be hoping to see us begin our
final Ninian Park year with a win. Happy birthday Toby, from
your family and your friends at Cardiff City.
PASSING OF FORMER BLUEBIRDS
During this summer two former Cardiff City stalwarts sadly
died - former Wales International forward Derek Tapscott at
the age of 75 on June 12th, and former Wales International
full-back Ron Stitfall aged 82 on June 22nd. Full tributes
were paid to them on "Cardiff City World" at the time, and
representatives of the Club and former team-mates
attended their funerals. We will however include further
tributes to them in forthcoming match-programmes.
GATES TO RETURN
Anyone passing Ninian Park recently may have noticed that
our main gates have been missing - but they are coming
back, and should be in place by a week tomorrow, having
been removed in order to be sand-blasted and generally
refurbished. They will also have a specially-designed motif
to mark our occupancy of this ground from 1910 to 2009.
Next summer they will be re-erected at the start of a
specially created walk-way into our new stadium. For the
record, the gates were designed and erected in the summer
of 1947 when the white castellated wall fronting the ground
on Sloper Road was built.
