Cardiff City are one of two Championship clubs still without a win, and Stoke City come to Cardiff on Tuesday night

Cardiff City have played five Championship games without a win, and only Burnley, bottom of the 24 on two points, can say the same. Cardiff City are 22nd on three points, from three for a win and one for a draw. Stoke City come to Cardiff City Stadium tonight, kick-off 19:45, have just won twice: 1-0 at home to Norwich City on 1 September and 4-0 at home to Charlton Athletic on Saturday, both without conceding a goal, after three defeats to open the season. A win would be Cardiff City's first of the season and would lift the club off 22nd. The bottom three of the 24 go down in May.

Cardiff City have not won a Championship game since coming up: five played, three drawn, two lost, six scored and nine conceded. The run is older than the season. Include the last game of last season, a 5-4 defeat at Mansfield Town on 2 May in League One, the division below, and it is six league games without a win. Cardiff City's last league win was 5-1 at home to Northampton Town on 25 April, in League One, with promotion already secured. There has been no league win since.

Possession is not the shortage. Cardiff City have averaged 65 per cent of the ball across the five league games, the highest share of any of the 24 Championship clubs, with Swansea City next on 60.4 per cent. The shortage is the finish. Cardiff City have taken 80 shots, more than all but five of the 24, and scored six: 7.5 per cent, the fourth-lowest conversion in the division. Stoke City have scored eight from 54 shots, 14.8 per cent, the third-highest. Expected goals, the licensed data provider's estimate of what a side's chances were worth, tells the same story from the other end: in the four of those five games the provider has rated, Cardiff City's chances were worth 5.72 against 6.42 conceded. Stoke City have won without the ball, 44.2 per cent of it a game across all five, and won the last two 1-0 and 4-0. Brian Barry-Murphy, Cardiff City's head coach, has offered consistency rather than upheaval. "We have to remain calm. I wouldn't get too carried away by where we are; it's very early in the season," he said on Monday, adding that Cardiff City "have to improve, and that will remain the case".

The EFL has appointed Sam Allison to referee, on the appointments published on 2 September, with John Bickerdike and Matt Jones on the lines and Steve Parkinson as fourth official. Stoke City listed five players unavailable through injury on the club's own site on 5 September, before that day's home game against Charlton Athletic, and published no newer availability list in Monday's match pack, so the list may have changed: Aaron Cresswell, Svante Ingelsson, Junior Tchamadeu, Ben Gibson and Million Manhoef. Cardiff City published team news on Monday. Barry-Murphy said the forward Isaak Davies hurt his hamstring in training on Friday, which is why he missed Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth, and "I imagine he won't be available for Tuesday". The head coach said the rest of the squad are back around the international window, later this month, and that he did not imagine anything would change between Monday and kick-off. The licensed data feed lists three more Cardiff City players as injured, Calum Chambers, Will Fish and Dylan Lawlor. The club has not confirmed any of the three, so treat all three as doubts. The game is on Sky Sports+ at 19:45, on Sky's own list of the football on Sky for Tuesday 8 September.

Correction, 8 September 2026: an earlier version of this piece withdrew the Sky Sports+ line, saying no EFL or Sky page named a channel for this game. Sky's own list of the football on Sky for Tuesday 8 September names Cardiff City v Stoke City, Championship, Sky Sports+ at 19:45. The withdrawal was wrong and the line is restored. The same version said Cardiff City went up as a result of the 5-1 win over Northampton Town on 25 April; promotion was already secured by then. It said Stoke City's five unavailable players were listed before that day's game at Charlton Athletic, which was played at Stoke, and that Stoke City had published nothing newer, when the club published a match pack for this game on 7 September. It also referred to a two-week pause for international matches: the Championship has not paused, and the head coach's words were about players due back around the international window later this month.

Updated 6 and 7 September 2026. An earlier version said neither club had published team news, and the head to head panel carried a February 2025 FA Cup tie as a league meeting; the panel now runs five league meetings. An earlier version also gave Stoke City 0.80 expected goals a game, a figure drawn only from the club's three defeats, and it has been replaced with possession across all five games. Cardiff City published Brian Barry-Murphy's pre-match media after this preview was filed, and Isaak Davies is now on the record as a doubt.