Colchester midfielder Johnnie Jackson has given Cardiff a boost with a timely reminder not to panic as there are plenty of games left to play.
The former Spurs player has been a regular for the U's this season who are also at the wrong end of the table, level on points with City, and his reminder will be welcomed by Cardiff boss Dave Jones.
Talking to Cardiff City's Andy Sloan Jackson said: "I think Cardiff would expect to be higher up the league, especially with the strikers that they've bought in. You'd expect them at this level to be really doing the business and putting a string of results together. But it's pretty early. It's only a third of the way through the season so I don't think its time for panic."
Jackson is surprised at his own team's position in the league after their tenth place finish last year in their first season in the Championship. "Obviously we want to be higher up ourselves," he said. "Every team down there does. I'm sure every team is capable of getting out of it. The league's so tight, if you put a couple of wins together. You'll find yourselves in the top half pushing for the play-offs."
But Jackson's message of hope was qualified by his belief that the U's are intent on continuing their good record against the Bluebirds.
He said: "We know Cardiff's a difficult place to go and a draw would probably be a decent result for us, but we're going into this game looking for a win. We'll be confident and I'm sure Cardiff will be confident in front of their own fans and it should be a good game."
Colchester have struggled this season after holding their own last time around. Jamie Cureton and Chris Iwelumo have left to go to Norwich and Charlton respectively but the U's have replaced them with Kevin Lisbie, Clive Platt and former England, Manchester United and Spurs striker Teddy Sheringham.
"We've not been disappointed with the way we've played," admitted Jackson. "There have been a few games where we haven't really performed but there have been a lot of games where we felt we should have really taken points and haven't done or we've drawn a lot of games we thought we should have won."
Jackson echoed the feelings of many City fans as he described Colchester's current standing in the league, saying, "I'm not saying it's a false position, but we feel it could be a lot higher. I'm sure that most teams look at every game and say that if we had done that then we could be there, but we certainly feel that we've thrown away a few points where we didn't need to."
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