Phil Sumbler
The Swans will this weekend go into the second South Wales clash of the season knowing that avoiding defeat is essential and a victory is really needed to lift the mood on what has been a pretty dreadful season all round.
The mood of the supporters can only be best judged by the reactions at the fans forum on Monday evening which saw some difficult questions posed to both club Chairman Andy Coleman and Sporting Director Paul Watson.
For the purposes of this weekend though those questions should go on the backburner as we set out to avoid Cardiff achieving a first ever league double over the Swans and break our dominance over this fixture over the past twenty years.
As part of the build up to that clash on Saturday lunchtime we start with a look back over some classic fixtures of the past starting with a 1-0 win for the Swans in the capital back in 2010.
Cardiff City 0 Swansea City 1
07 November 2010, The Cardiff City Stadium
Planet Swans Match Report – Marvellous Marvin Secures Swans Win
Emnes struck with less than twenty minutes left to give the Swans a deserved victory in a game that they dominated for the majority.
The on loan Middlesbrough man turned on the edge of the area and struck a powerful shot that Heaton could only parry into the back of the net to grab the only goal of the game but in truth there can be no complaints from a home side that didn’t really seem to turn up on the day or live up to their billing as the ‘best squad in the Championship’
For long periods Swansea kept hold of the ball and created the higher number of chances with Heaton in particular called upon to deal with long shots from Sinclair, Allen and Dyer in the second half whilst Sinclair also hit the post in a pretty one sided account.
Home captain Craig Bellamy squandered their best two chances firing at De Vries when one on one and with almost the last touch of the game he headed the ball wide when unmarked to secure the win that the Swans so desperately wanted.
The result was no more than the Swans deserved as they took the game to Cardiff who desperately seemed to be missing the influence of Jay Bothroyd on the park whilst the Swans coped without Darren Pratley with strongh midfield performances from Mark Gower, Joe Allen and Andrea Orlandi whilst Sinclair and Dyer were as ever always willing outlets.
It was at the back that the Swans really excelled and the attacking threat normally posed by Bellamy, Chopra, Whittingham et al was nullified by the top class performances of Monk, Williams, Tate and Rangel.
It seemed to be a strange atmosphere for a derby with Cardiff fans struggling to get behind a side who were second best on the day and the 1800 Swans fans appearing to be the loudest throughout the game knowing that they looked set to take home the bragging rights.
And a glance at the league table at the end of the game shows the importance of victory as the Swans close the gap to the top two to three points on a dramatic afternoon at the CCS.
With two games to come in a week at the Liberty and six clean sheets in an unbeaten run of seven, the Swans are the form horse of the division and that could see us in an even stronger position this time next week.
And for the next three months at least it’s bragging rights to Swansea City.
Who are we?
Brendan Rodgers: “It was a terrific goal, he’ll obviously go down in folklore with Swans fans after that,” said Rodgers.
“He’s taken the ball in and made a wonderful turn… he’s shown great quality since he’s been with us.”
Striker Emnes is due to return to Middlesbrough as his loan ends at the end of this week, but Rodgers says he hopes to keep hold of the Dutchman.
“His last game will be against Bristol City on Wednesday, he can’t play against Middlesbrough [on Sunday],” Rodgers told BBC Sport Wales.
“We’ll take it from there, he’s a player we’d love to keep here.
“He fits perfectly into our style and our identity as a team, and he’s a good guy as well so we’ll see what happens in the next week or so.”
The match was Rodgers’ first south Wales derby and the Northern Irishman was thrilled with the outcome.
“It’s feels very good, it’s obviously my first derby,” he said. “The build-up was very big and I’m obviously delighted.
“It was very important as there was a lot of emotion and history involved. It was important for the fans and for our position in the league.
“We were paid a massive compliment by Cardiff because they changed their structure and team to match up our three in midfield.
“We started to get control of the game, especially in the second half when we created a number of chances. We thoroughly deserved it.
“We needed a strong team ethos in attack and defence and you could see that against a top, top team who have scored many goals.
“Take away all the emotion from it and it’s another three points.
“We’ll take each game as it comes. We’re feeling very strong and this moves us closer to the top two so we’ll keep going and improving day by day.”
Dave Jones: “We’ve lost one game, it’s not the end of the world,” said the Bluebirds boss.
“You lose one derby game and it’s like you’ve shot the Pope, if you win it you’ve become the Pope… that’s crazy. It should have been 0-0.
“But you can’t make mistakes like ours in defence. We tried to pinch the ball at the edge of the box – you can’t make mistakes like that at this level.”
