U18 Match Preview | Burnley vs. Cardiff City

Cardiff City’s U18 side continue their Premier Development League campaign on Saturday, as they travel to Lancashire to take on Burnley – KO at 11am.

Having beaten Peterborough United last weekend, City produced another win in midweek, as they defeated QPR 5-2. After going behind in the first half, the Bluebirds rallied back in the second. There were braces for Louis Phillips and Jake Davies, while Osian Rees scored a sumptuous free kick. QPR did pull a goal back in the dying embers of the game, but it was too little too late for them. The result means it’s three wins on the bounce for City.

The victory moves the young Bluebirds into third place in the PDL South on 45 points. They sit five points behind second placed Charlton Athletic, who currently occupy the final Play-Off spot.

This weekend sees Tom Hutton’s side travel north to take on Burnley. The Clarets themselves are fourth in the PDL North and have an outside chance of reaching the Play-Offs. They are unbeaten in their last three outings and picked up an impressive 4-1 win over Swansea City last weekend. When these two teams met towards the end of last season, the Bluebirds edged Burnley 2-0.

We caught up with head coach Hutton to preview Saturday's clash.

“For us as a group, our second half against QPR was really good. We now want to continue to try and deliver that same level of performance for 90 minutes now rather than just for one half.

“Burnley will give us a tough game. They were in the Premier League for a few years, and they’ve really pushed on as an Academy. We will be expecting a really difficult game on Saturday, both from a physical and tactical perspective. Over the past couple of days, we’ve rested and recovered from that game on Tuesday, and we will prepare for that game on Saturday as positively as we can.”