The East London-outfit, who were relegated from the Premiership last season, came from behind to leave South Wales with a 3-2 victory in the League Cup match between the two teams back in September, so City will be looking for revenge, and three points would do nicely!

Jermaine Defoe scored a hat-trick to complete an impressive West Ham comeback that night, and an interesting media battle between the England Under-21 international and Robert Earnshaw is coming into play! Lennie Lawrence has said he believes Defoe is now worth £10million and is easily good enough to be playing in the Premiership. The City boss also believes that Zambian-born Earnshaw is not that far behind Defoe.

The Hammers come to Ninian Park on a run of quite mixed form, drawing their last three games all of which were at Upton Park. However, since their 3-2 victory against the Bluebirds in the Cup, West Ham have remained unbeaten.

Lennie Lawrence is expected to make only one change from the starting line-up that beat Coventry City 3-1 last weekend, with Graham Kavanagh returning as captain after completing his suspension. The Irish international is expected to replace either Mark Bonner or Gareth Whalley in the Bluebirds line-up.

Gavin Gordon retains his place up front, and will be looking for another good performance as he aims to keep his place in the City line-up, especially with Peter Thorne on the road to recovery and Andy Campbell soon to complete his suspension.

New West Ham boss Alan Pardew, who is facing his first away game in charge of the Hammers after drawing his opening game 1-1 at home to Nottingham Forest, has a couple of doubts for the clash. Kevin Horlock and Ian Pearce are both struggling with injuries, and are both rated about 50/50 to be involved on Saturday.

Hammers' new signing on-loan Robbie Stockdale goes straight into Pardew's squad tomorrow, while Hayden Mullins is also hoping to be in action after making his move from Crystal Palace permanent last week.

Just over 10,000 were at Ninian Park when West Ham visited in the League Cup, but a crowd close to a full-house is expected tomorrow. The visitors have had their allocation slashed to 1,500 due to police recommendations after crowd trouble in the cup game, and all these tickets have been sold.

Tomorrow's game kicks-off at 5.35pm, and is being shown live on Sky Sports Extra - Rupert Murdoch certainly likes the City this season!

Bluebird to the Bone Prediction - Cardiff City 2-1 West Ham United
The Bluebirds to continue a good run of form of late, with an excellent three points over one of the leagues flagship sides.

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