Russell Martin’s Swansea City enjoyed a perfect 2-0 derby day win over Cardiff, after an early Callum Robinson red card gave the visitors a mountain to climb. It’s a win that makes it six from seven for the Swans, and takes them up to fourth in the Championship as they strengthen their promotion claims.
But on such an emotional day in Wales, it was Cardiff that cracked and Swansea that lived up to the occasion. Just six minutes in, Robinson lost his head with disastrous consequences for his side. The forward gave away a soft foul for a shove, and then bizarrely reacted by chucking the ball into the face of Ben Cabango.
Darren Bond was left with little choice but to show him the red card and all of the planning that Mark Hudson had put into this game immediately disintegrated in front of his eyes. Bond managed to keep his composure in a hostile atmosphere, but he did miss a stonewall penalty for the home side.
READ MORE
Cedric Kipre inexplicably punched the ball clear from a cross and despite the appeals from the home fans, the referee didn’t see it and failed to award the penalty. Moments later however, the Swans were in front. Oli Cooper, whose dad used to play for Cardiff, has been at the club since the age of 12 and ten years later, he scored his most important goal in a white shirt. The ball fell to him in the box and he swept it first time into the top corner off the crossbar, to send the home fans delirious.
It’s a perfect tale for a day like today. He had several failed trials as a youngster with Cardiff and all of his friends growing up followed the Bluebirds, but it was Swansea that took the chance on him a decade ago. Since then, he has worked his way through the academy system, before breaking into the first team at the back end of last season. This was his first senior south Wales derby and in front of his dad, he scored the all-important opener.
Today, his dad watched on as he scored the opener in his first south Wales derby.
📹 @SkyFootball
From there, the home side absolutely dominated. Russell’s possession-based style of play is difficult to cope with when your side had a full complement of players on the pitch, but with a man down, it was an impossible task for the Bluebirds. They were toyed with, as Swansea dominated proceedings.
The impressive Matt Grimes was at the heart of it all and by the time the full-time whistle went, he had made more passes than the entire Cardiff team. In the second half, he made one that took the game away from the away side. With his left foot, he weighted a perfect through ball to Obafemi who was able to tuck the ball past Ryan Allsopp.
The striker could have had a hat-trick on another day as he missed two other decent chances, but they were quickly forgotten as the Swans celebrated another win, and another success over their nearest rivals. It’s a fixture they’ve dominated in recent time - Cardiff have now won just one of the last eight south Wales derbies - and now there can be no doubt - Swansea are top dogs in this part of the world.
