Mark Rowlands looks forward to the Carling Cup clash.....

And so here it is, the first of three Cardiff City games this season.   Of course as we are often told this one means less than the two league meetings so therefore I have elected to play the reserves in this game and save the big gun preview for the meeting in November.

But there is much material. much of it given by our resident Cardiff fans on this very forum.   You know the ones - they are masters of banter, full of original quips and often so far ahead of us intelligence wise that it is just not worth even trying to compete.   There is very little retort to "gypo" or "swansea slum" or even - wait for it "little brother" so much so that I often find it best to just sit back and say nothing and allow them the victory that the genius requires.

Then of course we get the FA Cup Final line - does anyone outside of Cardiff really remember a loser? - and of course you get the we won the FA Cup back in 1842 line as well, back in the days when even Burnley and Huddersfield were considered big clubs.

And to follow that then we have the stadium debate.   How someone is about to churn out £9m to name the lego stadium which somehow will wipe out the £30m of debt that the club own.   So much so that last week I offered the Halifax the chance to rename my house in a straight swap for clearing off my mortgage - I think the bank manager is still laughing at that one.  Much like the football world against you know who.....

And there is the other myths that go with the stadium and Cardiff fans

"It will never be shared with the rugby" - Result: it is being shared with the rugby

"The football club will be in total control" - Result: Mike Hall (egg chaser) is one of the leading players in the stadium team

"The stadium will have 60,000 seats" - Result: the stadium has significantly less than half that

"The Stadium will have more character than any other new stadium" - Result: the stadium looks just the same as every other new stadium

Urban myths were clearly invented in Cardiff.   Wonder if they have noticed the Swans shirt that was placed under the main stand at the lego stadium?

Of course what you cannot beat is a bit of local banter and there is hours of entertainment to come from our cousins.   Sam Hamman is held in a similar mould in Cardiff to the one that Tony Petty is held with here although the difference being that Tony Petty did little to escalate the debt here - Sam put £40m on the Cardiff figure.   (that may have risen by the time you have finished reading this)

Still, that's it for now - as you read this I suspect the Liberty staff are placing the booster cushions on the seats in the away end to allow for them to be able to see properly as the two clubs prepare to do battle on the pitch.

Bring it on and wait for November when I put out the full blown preview.....

Photo: Action Images

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