South Wales derby

The South Wales derby is a football local derby between Welsh clubs Cardiff City and Swansea City and is regarded as one of the most fierce rivalries in British football.^[1][2] Despite both clubs being in Wales, they play in the English football league system and have won English honours: Cardiff the FA Cup in 1927 and Swansea the Football League Cup in 2013.

The last South Wales derby to be played took place on 3 November 2013 in the Premier League, which ended with a 1–0 win to Cardiff City at the Cardiff City Stadium.

History

The first match between the two sides took place on 7 September 1912 at Swansea Town's Vetch Field, a Southern Football League Division Two match ending in a 1–1 draw. Over the next two decades, as they rose to the national Football League, the clubs met frequently not only in league competition but also in the Welsh Cup as at the time they were two of the best Welsh teams and as such often progressed further into the tournament.

During the last few decades both clubs have been plagued by football hooliganism, notably Cardiff whose Soul Crew became notorious through their actions,^[3][4] and matches between the sides have often been marred by violence between the rival sets of supporters.

In September 1988, after seeing their side win in Swansea, a group of Cardiff fans were chased into the sea by a group of Swansea fans. Since then, Swansea fans mockingly suggest to their Cardiff City rivals that they "swim away", in reference to the event.^[5]

On 23 December 1993 a match between the two sides was dubbed 'The Battle Of Ninian Park' as Swansea fans were placed in the grandstand for the game. As Cardiff went up 1–0, The Swansea fans began ripping out seats and throwing them at the Cardiff supporters, which resulted in the home fans invading the pitch. The following day national news showing pictures of the violence shocked the nation, forcing the FAW to ban away fans from this fixture for several years, the first fixture in Britain to do so.

Although in recent years the hooligan violence of both sides has sharply decreased matches between the two sides can still see serious trouble, as such any games between the two teams are normally subject to a much higher level of policing than normal matches (bubble matches). A heavy police presence was also required when Swansea fans travelled to Cardiff when they played at the Millennium Stadium in the Football League Trophy final in 2006.^[6]

In recent years the South Wales derby has taken place less frequently as Cardiff City moved up the leagues whilst Swansea fell on bad times and nearly dropped out of the football league and hence avoided each other. The first derby to take place in just under a decade took place in the League Cup on 23 September 2008 with Swansea winning 1–0. The match saw sets of supporters from both clubs clash with police after the match.^[7] The return fixture, on 5 April 2009 at Ninian Park, was marred by referee Mike Dean being hit in the head by a coin thrown from the Cardiff crowd, as well as Cardiff fans clashing with police after the match.^[8] The violence led to 5 arrests on the day and more following the use of CCTV footage.

The first derby of the 2009–10 season on 7 November 2009 at the Liberty Stadium ended in a 3–2 win for Swansea and again saw crowd disturbance as hundreds of Swansea fans waited out side the ground for the Cardiff City fans to depart. This resulted in a total fifteen arrests were made during and after the match. Cardiff City fans also vandalised the North Stand in which they were placed for the game for the second year in a row. Seats and toilets were vandalised, pipe work ripped from walls and doors broken in the away fans' area. The cost of the damage is said to cost thousands of pounds. However, police praised the majority of supporters for their behaviour before, during and after the game which was attended by more than 18,000 fans. Divisional Commander for Swansea, Ch Supt Mark Mathias, who was in charge of policing the match, said: "The overwhelming majority of fans behaved extremely well."^[9][10][11]

The first South Wales derby in the Top Division took place during the 2013-14 season, following Cardiff's promotion from Championship.

Record

Tournament-wise summary, as of 3 November 2013

Game list

Only results from English football league system competitions are counted in the following tally. Friendlies and Welsh cup tournament matches are not included.

The most recent game resulted in a 1–0 win for Cardiff City at the Cardiff City Stadium.

      Cardiff City win       Swansea City win       Draw

Memorable matches

• Swansea Town 1–1 Cardiff City (7 September 1912) – The first ever meeting between the two sides. Billy Ball opened the scoring for Swansea after hitting in a rebound as the ball came off the post only for Cardiff captain Jack Burton to head in an equaliser.

• Swansea Town 3–3 Cardiff City (20 August 1938) – The match took place under the name of a Jubilee Benevolent Fund match and although the match was regarded as nothing more than a pre-season friendly the 10,000 crowd were not left wanting for action as Cardiff went 1–0 and 2–1 up only to be forced to grab a late equaliser to salvage a draw.

• Cardiff City 8–0 Swansea Town (26 October 1940) – A wartime league match ended in disaster for Swansea as they were on the receiving end of the "Bluebirds Blitzkrieg", as it was named, with a hattrick each for John Moore and Billy James and two goals for Reg Parker saw Swansea suffer a heavy defeat.

• Cardiff City 5–0 Swansea Town (6 April 1965) – A match mostly remembered as one of the most sporting matches to take place between the teams. The 15,000 strong Ninian Park crowd were treated to a fine performance from Cardiff, Swansea and Wales legends Ivor Allchurch and John Charles who found the net five times between them (Allchurch (3) and Charles (2)) to doom Swansea to relegation.

• Swansea City 4–1 Cardiff City (7 March 1995) – Heavy snowfall prior to kick-off saw the teams compete in a snow covered pitch with the use of an orange ball. Late in the first-half Swansea fired in three goals in the space of nine minutes to lead 3–0 at halftime. They added a fourth in the second-half before Cardiff grabbed a late consolation goal. End of this season Cardiff relegated to basement level.

• Swansea City 2–1 Cardiff City (22 November 1998) – Unknown at the time this was the last ever derby at the Vetch Field. Former Swans striker John Williams put the Bluebirds ahead in the 4th minute. But a second half come back saw Julian Alsop equalise in the 65th minute and Matthew Bound to win it for Swansea City in the last minute of normal time.

• Swansea City 1–0 Cardiff City (23 September 2008) – This was the first Derby match in six years. Although they were set to play each other in the league they were both drawn to play each other in the League Cup. This was also the first derby hosted at the Liberty Stadium. A lot of attention surrounded the game but the Swans came out on top as a Jordi Gomez deflected free kick was enough to win the game for them. Cardiff captain Stephen McPhail was later sent off for two bookable offences to further more misery for the Bluebirds.

• Cardiff City 2 – 2 Swansea City (5 April 2009) – This was the last derby match at Ninian Park. Referee Mike Dean had a coin thrown at him by a Cardiff City supporter during the game which caused an injury. In a very thrilling game Nathan Dyer gave the Swans the lead in the 11th minute. But after a lot of pressure from the Bluebirds, Michael Chopra equalised in the 54th minute. They continued the pressure but couldn't get that second goal. Then the Swans hit back as youngster Joe Allen put them back ahead 2–1 in the 88th minute which looked to have won the game for them. But a contreversial penalty converted by Ross McCormack in the 90th minute shared all the spoils.

• Cardiff City 2 – 1 Swansea City (3 April 2010) – This was the first South Wales Derby at the new Cardiff City Stadium that saw Cardiff and Swansea sitting in Play-off positions, 4th and 5th in the Football League Championship. It was billed as arguably the biggest South Wales derby of all time^[19] in respect to the position of the teams and how close it came to the end of the season. The match ended 2–1 to Cardiff with a 91st Minute winner from Cardiff's Michael Chopra

• Cardiff City 0 – 1 Swansea City (7 November 2010) – A lot of press attention was made in build up to the game as both teams were challenging in the play offs for promotion to the Premier League. Both teams had chances but in the 75th minute on loan Middlesbrough player Marvin Emnes put the Swans 1–0 up which was enough to win the game. This was Swansea's first win in the new Cardiff City stadium at the second time of asking.

• Swansea City 0 – 1 Cardiff City (6 February 2011) – A lot of attention surrounded the game once again as both teams were challenging in the play offs for promotion to the Premier League. This was also a chance for Swansea to do the first ever league double in the South Wales derby. In a very tight game local Cardiff born striker Craig Bellamy scored an 85 minute winner.

• Cardiff City 1 – 0 Swansea City (3 November 2013) – The first top flight and Premier League meeting between the pair (and therefore the first ever Premier League game to be played entirely outside England involving no English teams). In a tight affair with few chances former Swansea loan player Steven Caulker headed home the winner in the 62nd minute and Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm was sent off during injury time.

Player records

Most derby appearances*

0* – Excluding wartime fixtures.

Most derby goals*

0* – Excluding wartime fixtures.

Crossing the South Wales divide

A number of players who have played for both clubs during their career

Newport rivalry

Newport County are also part of South Wales derbies, regarding both Cardiff City and Swansea City as rivals, but particularly Cardiff for reasons of proximity and historic rivalry between the two cities. 24,268 spectators saw County and Cardiff play at Somerton Park Newport in 1937, which remained a ground record despite other high attendances for derby games between the clubs in the 1970s and 1980s. The clubs' relative league positions meant that Newport have rarely played Cardiff or Swansea since 1989, though they have faced each other in cup competitions; the most recent encounter being Newport's FAW Premier Cup victory against Cardiff at Ninian Park in February 2008.

A 2008 survey carried out by Planetfootball.com saw Swansea fans not even vote Newport into their top three rivalries, instead finishing behind Cardiff, Bristol City and Bristol Rovers, while Cardiff fans voted that they considered Bristol City, known as the Severnside derby, to be more of a rivalry than Newport.^[20]

References

Further reading

• Dean Hayes, The South Wales Derbies: A History of Cardiff City versus Swansea City