SWANS FLY IN DERBY SUCCESS AS BLUEBIRDS FALL APART
Cullen 34
Lowe 90 (+6)
0
SWANSEA City regained bragging rights over Cardiff City with a superb, and thoroughly deserved, victory in the 117th South Wales derby. Liam Cullen handed his side a deserved lead with his sixth goal of the season just before half-time following a fine team move, before then drilling wide from the spot early in the second half.
Cardiff seldom offered much sign of getting back into it, but any Swans nerves were settled deep into stoppage time Jamal Lowe then came off the bench to slot home and spark wild celebrations among the home faithful, and indeed the Swans bench.
In contrast, Cardiff, who brought Swansea’s dominance of this fixture to a grinding halt with a deserved 2-0 win back at the Cardiff City Stadium in September, were far more insipid this time around.
Aaron Ramsey, the star of the show in the previous meeting, started from the bench, but even his second-half introduction couldn’t prevent Swansea easing their way to a second straight home win.
Boss Luke Williams was of course in the dugout for the first of Swansea’s four straight victories in this fixture, having served as Russell Martin’s assistant for the 3-0 win back in 2021. Now, he has a derby win of his own to treasure.
Swansea really were excellent, and raced out the blocks from the first whistle. Nat Philips had to be alert to block a rasping Matt Grimes effort, after Cardiff failed to clear their lines following an early Jamie Paterson cross.
Harry Darling then headed straight at Ethan Horvath, while Ronald’s shot on the edge of the area couldn’t find a way through the blue bodies.
Swansea continued to create chances in a dominant opening 10 minutes, with Cullen firing over after being teed up by Joe Allen, before drilling a low effort wide just moments after Paterson’s low freekick had come off the wall.
Darling, in for the injured Ben Cabango, nearly marked his return to the side with a goal on 15 minutes, but his header could only find the crossbar.
Cardiff were rocking, and with Swansea’s early dominance clearly taking a hole in their composure, tempers soon started to fray. After coming so close to opening the scoring, Darling was at the heart of the game’s first big talking point.
A tussle with Yakou Meite had the hosts screaming for a red card, accus
ing the Cardiff striker of leaving a headbutt on the Swans number six. Replays suggested they might well have had a point.
Certainly, had VAR been in operation, there’s every chance Meite would have been handed his marching orders. That said, Darling didn’t exactly cover himself in glory either after landing an arm across the striker’s face moments beforehand.
The two came together again around minutes later in a rare opportunity for the visitors. Meite did well to get behind the Swans defence, before Darling came across to snuff out the danger.
That really was as good as it got in terms of chances for the Bluebirds in the first half. Indeed, the only positive for Erol Bulut during the opening half an hour was that Swansea didn’t really have anything to show for their dominance.
That all changed 10 minutes before the interval, however. A lovely flick allowed Brazilian winger Ronald to glide his way down the right, before laying off for Kyle Naughton, who continued his bid to roll back the years by arching in a superb cross for an unmarked Cullen, who duly applied an impressively elegant firsttime finish to score.
Only the body of Phillips stopped Naughton getting on the scoresheet himself moments later. The Liverpool loanee doing well to get in the way of the veteran’s effort from close range following yet another Swans corner.
Then came the latest chapter in the Meite-Darling showdown. Once again, the Cardiff man was left counting his lucky stars as a cynical trip on his nemesis for the afternoon was deemed not to be worthy of a second yellow card.
Few were really surprised to see Meite not come out for the second half, with Bulut introducing Rubin Colwill and Callum O’Dowda in a bid to find some semblance of an attacking spark. And yet, it was Swansea who remained on the front foot, with Paterson keeping the chance counter ticking over by firing high and wide on the edge of the area.
Then came a golden opportunity to kill the game off. Perry Ng, who was given a torrid time for much of the afternoon, was penalised for hauling down Ronald inside the box, and referee David Webb had no hesitation in pointing to the box.
Replays suggested it might well have been harsh, but Cullen’s miss rendered that debate largely immaterial. The Wales international firing his low effort wide of the post.
Cardiff might have felt justice was done, and did show some signs of improvement as the game reached the hour mark. Philips saw a header gathered by Carl Rushworth from a corner, before Colwill fired an effort into orbit following some good work from Josh Bowler.
But Swansea were still creating chances of their own. Indeed, Cullen might well feel he should have done better after guiding a stooping header wide.
On came Ramsey for his first outing since the start of February. His first contribution being the concession of a foul on the edge of the box, with Horvath having to be alert to keep out Grimes’ resulting freekick.
Nevertheless, his introduction coincided with what was probably Cardiff’s best spell. Dimitrios Goutas headed wide from a corner. Phillips headed wide from another, but Swansea held firm.
The hosts’ nerves were finally settled deep into stoppage time as Lowe skipped away from his man to race away and slot home, banishing memories of that Friday night in September in the process.
Swansea are kings of south Wales once more.