A midfield dog-fight will set the scene in south Wales on Saturday as Cardiff City play hosts to Preston North End.

After a managerial change steered the Bluebirds away from the wrong end of the table earlier this season, the hosts will be looking to solidify their league position ahead of the final 12 games of the season.

The visitors will come into the game looking to clean up their patchy recent form to make a late play-off push, as they currently sit seven points away from the top six with two wins in their last five.

Team news

For Cardiff, Curtis Nelson, Sean Morrison, Isaac Vassell and Max Watters will be unavailable through injury. Tommy Doyle will return to contention after missing Cardiff's win over QPR through illness.

Preston are not without selection issues either, as Tom Barkhuizen, Greg Cunningham and Izzy Brown are all set to miss out through injury. Josh Murphy will also be unavailable against his parent club.

Predicted lineups

Cardiff: Smithies, Ng, Flint, McGuiness, Ralls, Wintle, Vaulks, Drameh, Doughty, Hugill, Colwill.

Preston: Iversen, van den Berg, Diaby, Hughes, Browne, Whiteman, Potts, Earl, Johnson, Evans, Archer

Ones to watch

Rubin Colwill

The young Welshman has exploded onto the scene this season for his boyhood club, and scored an absolute beauty of a free-kick in the victory against QPR. Many would back Cardiff's star-boy to shine again.

Cameron Archer

The on-loan Aston Villa forward has been in outstanding form since joining Preston on loan in January, and scored the equaliser last time out as his side defeated Bournemouth.

Previous meetings

The last time these two sides faced was in the FA Cup on January 9, where Mark Harris scored the winner in extra time for Cardiff after a Daniel Johnson penalty had initially pegged them back after Isaak Davies opened the scoring.

How to watch

The game will kick off at 15:00 GMT on Saturday, March 12 at the Cardiff City Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The game will not be broadcast on television but those outside of the UK and Ireland can purchase a match pass from either club website to watch the game live.