So much of the attention of the media when discussing Swansea’s dominance in south Wales derbies over the last decade focuses on the so called “double double” when the jacks won the four league games between the two teams played in the 21/22 and 22/23 seasons to record the first, and only, league doubles in the long history of the fixture.
In the second of those two seasons, City at least had the excuse that they were reduced to ten men inside the first ten minutes of the first game and fought back from two down to level the second match before succumbing deep into added time, but their performance in both of the earlier fixtures was feeble and embarrassing.
The thing is that those two woeful showings shouldn’t have come as a shock to a City fan if they were being honest with themselves, because Cardiff were in the habit of not showing up for the derby well before the double double and the truth was that there was a feeling that the inevitable was just being delayed.
Even when City managed to win a game, it was during the period of Covid restrictions which meant there was no crowd in attendance and there was a feeling that the City had to come through a siege on the goal to get their 1-0 away win.
Last season’s 2-0 win at Cardiff City Stadium to end the jack’s winning streak was very welcome and well deserved, but I have to concede that Swansea’s victory by the same score in the reverse fixture was more comprehensive.
So, it still felt like Swansea had the superiority and last March I had to write another one of those highly critical pieces on a City v Swansea match where I struggled to contain my anger at our latest failure against opponents that I always say come second in the rivalry stakes for me to Bristol City!
The argument (supported by me) has grown in recent years that City don’t “get” what the south Wales derby is all about like Swansea do. Well, for a while at least (actually I suppose it could be a long while if we go down this season), the boot is going to be on the other foot after today’s 3-0 home win for Cardiff and it’s going to the jacks fans who’ll be having the discussions about what went wrong, where was the passion in the team and how their team rolled over to have their tummy tickled.
Make no mistake, after an opening spell where City appeared to be happy enough to concede possession and territory to Swansea, this was as comprehensive as anything we’ve suffered at the hands of the jacks in recent years with the possible exception of their 4-0 here in 2022.
The question I’m asking myself in these hours following the game is where did this performance come from and why?
Let’s face it, there’s been very little this season to suggest we had such a dominant performance in us apart from those wins over Plymouth and Portsmouth from around four months ago. Since early November we’ve had our usual issues at home and although we’re pretty good at getting our noses in front, we’ve lost too many leads – the truth is that for the vast majority of this season we’ve looked like a relegation threatened team.
I can come up with two reasons for today’s so welcome and encouraging display. First, although his future beyond this season still remains very much in doubt, there does appear to be a great deal of goodwill in the squad towards Omer Riza and the awful news yesterday that his father, Josh, had died suddenly may well have created a “this one’s for the boss” mentality.
Certainly, for probably the first time, it felt like the crowd were thinking that this was Riza’s team and kudos goes to whoever it was who started the chant of “this one’s for your dad” in the second half.
Given the last forty eight hours or so he’s had, it wasn’t that surprising that Riza created an unwelcome first double in the fixture as City became the first team in the to have their manager sent off in both games of a season as he followed Erol Bulut’s example in the 1-1 draw back in August.
Riza’s offence was to run on to the pitch in pursuit of Swansea midfielder Goncalo Franco late in the game after a pretty mild collision between the two men as the ball was going out for a throw in. Although referee James Bell’s decision to show the red card was a correct one by the letter of the law, Riza’s reaction was out of character based on what I’ve seen of the man and I hope the disciplinary panel takes the strain he was under into account when they consider what sort of punishment our manager should face.
The second possibility I referred to earlier is a pretty obvious one really. We’ve only been two goals clear in a league fixture three times this season and it’s no coincidence that our most convincing displays have come in 5-0, 3-0 and 2-0 wins over Plymouth, Swansea and Portsmouth respectively – we were able to win each game with a bit of style, whereas you’re always fearing the worst when we go into the closing minutes of a match with a one goal lead.
City made three changes to the team that should have beaten Watford in midweek as Callum Robinson, Joe Ralls and Ollie Tanner came in for Perry Ng, Chris Willock and Rubin Colwill and there was another early change as Callum O’Dowda came off with what looked like a hamstring injury to be replaced by Joel Bagan.
The first half was pretty typical derby fare with space and chances at a premium, but, even so, by City home game standards, there were more opportunities for us than normal as we gradually began to take a degree of control on proceedings. First though, we had the period of Swansea superiority in terms of pressure mentioned earlier and Franco maybe should have done better than fire not too far over from fifteen yards after City struggled to cope with a clever free kick routine.
For a long time, that remained Swansea’s only meaningful goal attempts and the game was as good as over when their second one came along.
Alex Robertson dragged a shot wide, but that was an isolated incident until the minutes leading up to half time when City’s pressing and fierce tackling began to sway the game in their favour.
Callum Chambers had a similar chance to Franco’s, but not from so far out, but the result was the same as his shot flew over and then the midfielder forced Lawrence Vigouroux into the half’s only serious save with a close range angled shot. Arguably though, the best chance fell to Robinson who hit a weak effort when unmarked on the edge of the penalty area straight at the keeper after being set up by Robertson.
During the interval, it felt like half time had come just when City didn’t need it as they had momentum behind them, but the opening minutes showed that, if anything, the opposite was true as they were able to gather themselves for the one sided forty five minutes which followed as Robinson wrote himself into City folklore with a quick fire double to take his tally of goals against the jacks this season to three.
Just seventy seconds had been played in the second half when Tanner knocked over a cross from the left to Robinson who took advantage of some slack marking by Harry Darling (the fact the Jacks’ winder up in chief had a stinker of a game was one of the most pleasing of the match’s sub plots) to take a touch and then hook a left footed shot precisely across Vigouroux and into the net from twelve yards.
Four minutes later, Robinson did it again, although he owed an awful lot to Swansea left back Josh Tymon whose pass back intended for Darling, split the Swansea centre backs and landed at Robinson’s feet. From here, our top scorer took his goals tally for the season into double figures as he easily beat Vigouroux with another left footed shot from the edge of the penalty area.
Given how games have gone between the teams, I was now expecting the inevitable Swansea fight back, but it never came – in fact, the rest of the game was pretty easy for City as they continued to win individual battles all over the pitch.
Midway through the half, City extended their lead as they persisted with their policy of having Robertson take all of the set pieces and his out swinging corner was headed powerfully home by Dimi Goutas for his first goal of the season.
I believe there could have further goals there for City if they had needed them, but there was an air of celebration which suggested they’d already done enough.
Swansea briefly roused themselves as right back Josh Key headed inches wide and Robinson was well placed to nod a header by Darling I think it was from a corner off the line, but the closing minutes saw some petulance from the frustrated visitors as their bookings mounted. There was then a dispute between the teams after the final whistle as the jacks showed more fight after the final whistle than they had done in the last hour of it – a point made more forcibly (he labelled it “pathetic”) by Swansea manager Luke Williams in his post game press conference.
Given the occasion, this was City’s best performance of the season and they won’t go down if they continue to show this type of form. The one doubt I have is that the occasion was a unique one in that there were over 25,000 present and our manager was in mourning after a sudden death in his family. Next Saturday when we face Derby in what is becoming a very important game, there will probably be ten thousand less present and you have to wonder as to whether we’ll be able to recapture the intensity shown today? One thing’s for sure though, City will head to Millwall in midweek full of confidence because a corner certainly seems to have been turned since the Boxing Day horror show at Oxford.
Just a brief few words on last night’s 2-1 Youth Cup loss at Leckwith to a big and powerful Bristol City side that played a direct game in a manner you very rarely see at this level these days. Dan Ola gave City the lead with a good finish just before half time, but the wurzels instantly equalised and we’re ahead shortly after the break with both goals coming from corners.
Mannie Barton hit the crossbar with a free kick in added time, but you couldn’t deny the visitors their deserved win as they took charge after the break following an even first period.
In local football, there were away draws for Treherbert Boys and Girls Club in the Ardal South West League (3-3 at Pontardawe Town) and Treorchy Boys and Girls Club in Division One East of the Highadmit South Wales Alliance League (2-2 at Pantyscallog Village), Meanwhile, Ton Pentre are still getting beaten every week in the Premier Division of the Highadmit league despite them having become more competitive in recent weeks – this time they went down 2-0 at home to Aber Valley.
