The reward for Cardiff City would be a daunting occasion.
"It'll be an easy game in the final . . . Man City or Liverpool," says Craig Conway with a bright chuckle. He is sitting in his London hotel room ahead of tonight's Carling Cup semi-final first-leg against Crystal Palace, and the possibilities of this season suddenly appear exhilarating.
Cardiff are two games away from Wembley and have recovered their league form to such an extent that they only sit two points behind the joint leaders of the npower Championship, Southampton and West Ham United, who were once detached in the race for promotion. The prospect of reaching the final and experiencing the glamour and commotion that gathers around the elite sides is an enticing one.
"We're up there fighting for it. It doesn't get much better than this," says Conway. "The main focus is the league and that's who we want to be playing against every week, the best. There aren't many better teams than Man City or Liverpool. We've managed to get ourselves within touching distance of the top two and we're aiming above a play-off place. There's been disappointments in the past with the play-offs, but I don't sense any [psychological hangover] with the boys."
Cardiff have been a club shaken by their failures, having suffered defeat whenever they have reached the play-offs, while they lost the 2008 FA Cup final to Portsmouth. Under a new manager in Malky Mackay, the former Celtic and Watford centre-back, the club's optimism has been renewed, and Conway was one of several new signings at the start of this season, including fellow Scots, Don Cowie and Kenny Miller.
There are five of his countrymen playing at the club, and the former Dundee United winger has settled comfortably into the demands of the Championship, even if it has obliged him to curb some of his instincts. A tricky, quick and inventive player at United, Conway has had to become more constrained.
"I've been working more on the defensive aspect of the game," he says. "Most teams have got full-backs who go forward, so you need to learn how to defend more. It's really good that the manager was a defender himself, because there's nobody better to teach you that. There's six of us Scots altogether, and the coaching staff as well. It helps, especially when you go down at first, because there are accents that you recognise. Everybody's been really welcoming, though, we're a close-knit squad."
Having knocked Manchester United out of the previous round, Crystal Palace cannot be underestimated, even if their league form has faltered causing the club to fall to 11th in the Championship. Managed by another Scot with a growing reputation in Dougie Freedman, Palace are a side of youth and potential, although Cardiff did win their only meeting of this season 2-0.
Making it through to face a leading Premier League side is the kind of challenge that rouses players, but there is intrigue, too, in the confrontation of two young, bold and promising managers. Having won the Scottish Cup with United two years, Conway knows what these occasions demand of players, but there is a balance for Cardiff, between the thrill of a cup final appearance and the lasting rewards of promotion.
"I watched that game and they deserved to go through at Old Trafford," he says of Palace. "We've managed to get this far in the cup and it's a great chance to get to Wembley. We're taking it very seriously. The main focus is the league, though."
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