Echoes

Here, David Giles wrote why Cardiff City could not contemplate losing the last meeting with Swansea at their famous old ground in April 2009. THERE we would be sitting kitted up, ready to go, knowing that this was the one fixture of the season we couldn’t lose.

In my playing days, half the team was from the area, unlike the present version, and I think that gave us a greater sense of what it really meant.

The importance of winning – or at the very least not getting beat – was something that lay in the very pit of your stomach.

There are few better feelings for a professional footballer than to score in a big derby match, but there were a few mixed emotions later that day with me being a Cardiff boy through and through.

Coming from South Wales, I knew full well what the goal meant to both sets of supporters. I’m not knocking Dave Jones’ side, but other than Joe Ledley, who is from Fairwater, I don’t think they really get the true significance of this clash. The same goes for the manager, who seemed offended by the magnitude of the reaction when City lost 1-0 at the Liberty Stadium in the first meeting between these two this season. Those who are at Ninian should count themselves as privileged to witness the final Cardiff-Swansea derby there, because come around 1pm, they will only ever be able to reminisce about the unique atmosphere of the occasion. As we know now, the teams drew 2-2. At least they didn’t lose the last derby at Ninian Park.