SCOUT'S REPORT: BLACKBURN

Cardiff City will be looking to get straight back to winning ways when Blackburn Rovers visit the Cardiff City stadium on Easter Monday.

Rovers come into the fixture off the back of a 1-1 draw with Blackpool. That result means that the Lancashire side are occupying eighteenth position, just three points above the drop zone.

As well as being low in the Championship table, they are far from sitting pretty in the form table either. They are now without a win in their last nine outings, achieving just the four points from a possible twenty-seven.

The Blue and Whites are averaging a point a game on the road, having managed eighteen points from their eighteen games. However, in their last five away from Ewood Park, they have only been able to conjure up two draws.

Key Players: Despite their current position in the league, the Riversiders have a squad that many teams in the division may envy. For starters they have the services of the £8 million man, Jordan Rhodes. He is the third highest scorer in the Championship with twenty-one goals already - Blackburn have only scored forty-six in total which shows just how valuable the Scot is to the team.

There is Premier League and international experience in abundance within Rovers' ranks too. Midfielders Danny Murphy and David Bentley have played for England for example, while striker Nuno Gomes has no less than seventy-nine caps for Portugal. 

If City are to win the game they will have to breakdown a defensive line containing experienced defender Scott Dann and Scottish international and scorer against Wales, Grant Hanley.

Previous Meetings: Blackburn just have the edge over Cardiff in the total head-to-head records. City have gained twenty-two victories compared with Rovers’ twenty-four, while there have been fifteen ties that have ended all square.

Despite winning the last two encounters, Cardiff have only won three in the last ten meetings. Blackburn have won five of the ten games, but this is a sequence stretching back to 1981 with the two teams in different divisions for long periods.

Last Meeting - Blackburn Rovers 1 – 4 Cardiff City (7/12/2012)

Cardiff extended their lead at the top of the Championship to four points after an emphatic win at Ewood Park.

Mark Hudson gave City the lead after half hour, heading home from close range, though Rovers dragged themselves back into the game just after half time, Joshua King neatly slotting the ball through the legs of David Marshall. The scores only stayed level just four minutes though, due to Craig Bellamy restoring City's advantage against his former club. The win was confirmed with two goals in two minutes late on from Joe Mason and Kim Bo-Kyung.

Blackburn Rovers Line-up: Robinson, Mn Olsson, Dann, Henley, Hanley, Lowe, Formica (Nunes), Ms Olsson (Kazim-Richards), Etuhu (Formica), Rhodes, King. Subs not used: Kean, Givet, Pedersen, Vukcevic.

Cardiff City Line-up: Marshall, Taylor, Hudson, Turner, Connolly, Whittingham, Cowie, Conway, Noone (Kim), Helguson (Gestede), Bellamy (Mason). Subs not used: Lewis, McNaughton, Lappin, Gunnarsson.