IN THE MIX WITH MICK
McCarthy’s derby win can reignite Cardiff top-six surge
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JOE RALLS has urged his Cardiff team-mates to rediscover the six-appeal of their early strut under Mick McCarthy.
The Bluebirds midfielder – shoehorned into a makeshift back five – made amends for his red card against Swansea in the first Welsh derby of the season by helping ensure Cardiff won the second.
It meant a victory for McCarthy in his first El Taffio, as well as Cardiff avoiding becoming the first club in the history of this derby fixture to suffer a double league defeat in the same campaign.
More significantly, it bruised Swansea’s chances of automatic promotion, while reviving Cardiff ’s play-off hopes which McCarthy had fanned with six straight wins when he first took over as manager. Ralls (below right) said: “If we can replicate that run it would put us in a great position because momentum is massive in this league.
“And when you put back-toback wins together you can climb that table quickly, as we’ve shown before.
“There are eight games to go and hopefully we can win enough of them and get enough points to get us into those top six places.”
Ralls was sent off for a late tackle when the Swans won 2-0 in the Welsh capital back in December but this time Cardiff ’s discipline was textbook as they defended Aden Flint’s early goal (below).
“We have had disappointing performances and results in the last couple of seasons in the derbies and we wanted to put that right,” said Ralls.
“We would have had to wait a long time until the next game, so it was really important to get the win for our supporters and for ourselves.”
Ralls was already sat in the dressing room before the end of that December meeting, so missed Swansea’s noisy on-field celebrations that day. But that did not stop him joining in the tit-for-tat party fun that Cardiff ’s players enjoyed this time.
He said: “Apparently, they celebrated that way and we just decided to do it ourselves. It was not just because of that but it shows the togetherness of the group as well.”
Cardiff are now four points behind sixth-placed Reading, their destination when the teams meet on April 17.
The only other team in the top six McCarthy’s men have left to play are Brentford, while Reading face testing matches against promotion rivals Barnsley, Watford, Swansea and Norwich.
Third-placed Swansea have fallen six points behind Watford following back-toback defeats, but have a game in hand, and Swans midfielder Korey Smith said: “We’re just gutted for the fans. We wanted to be the first team to win the double, but sometimes it’s not meant to be.
“We’ve got to try and continue to play how we did in this game. It was probably our best performance for a while, but the most important thing is getting results.”
SWANSEA: Woodman 6, Naughton 6 (Lowe 76, 6), Bennett 7, Guehi 7, Roberts 6, Fulton 6 (Dhanda 80), Grimes 7, Bidwell 5 (Manning 76, 6), Hourihane 6 (Smith 18, 6), Whittaker 7, Ayew 6 CARDIFF): Phillips 7, Sang 7, Flint 7, Morrison 7, Brown 6, Ralls 7, Bacuna 6 (Murphy 66, 6), Pack 6, Vaulks 7, Wilson 6 (Ojo 84), Moore 6
MOTM
ADEN FLINT (CARDIFF)