I didn't want to post something long in this thread, but I think I'm going to have to if I'm to get across my somewhat contradictory feelings on the subject.

About fifteen years ago, Dave Jones told us that the Swansea/Cardiff derby was nothing compared to a Merseyside derby and, in public at least, his attitude seemed to be that it was just another game - I must say mind, comparing our performances against Swansea under the "surly scouser" with recent ones, we were much more successful in the fixture and our players were definitely more up for the game than they have been under recent managers (with one possible exception).

Nevertheless, Jones' attitude has been a bit of a template for most City managers since then. I can't find a link to it, but Sabri Lamouchi was asked in one of his recent pre match press conferences about the Swansea fixture and he listed the games we had to play before then while saying his mind was on them more.

That goes to the heart of what I think is a differing attitude between the two clubs towards the fixture, What Russell Martin said was perfectly reasonable in that he wanted a turn around in results before the international break, but to then bring the derby into it strikes me as something that a Cardiff manager, of the last decade or so at least, would not do.

Apart from a backs to the wall win at their place in 2021 and a non event home draw a year earlier, recent games with the jacks have tended to be humiliating experiences for City and, given those outcomes, the reasonable question has been asked, do Swansea get what the fixture is about more than Cardiff?

Downplaying the relevance of the derby has done City no good in recent years and, in the build up to the meeting between the teams earlier in the season, the signals from then manager Mark Hudson were that this time things were going to be different - they were, one of our players was so wound up that he got himself sent off in the first ten minutes and, although the game was another embarrassment, we at least had a partial excuse this time and could argue that things might have been different if it had remained eleven against eleven.

For a hundred years or so, Swansea v Cardiff was a fixture which neither side could dominate, but, in recent years, even before we suffered the first league double loss by the ridiculous aggregate score of 7-0, we'd been hanging on to that record - it was obvious that Swansea were going to beat us twice soon.

Is the dominance of one side over the other in the fixture down to one of them understanding what it entails better than the other or is it just that our recent long ball, physical approach just plays into Swansea's hands? I don't know the answer to that question, but I wouldn't like a City manager talking about a fixture that is three weeks, and a couple of games away, like Martin is doing - especially when there's going to be a fortnight's build up to the match. In saying that, perhaps my attitude offers a clue as to why we do so badly against Swansea lately? What we need is a game where we rise to the occasion and are competitive against the jacks in which we end up getting a positive result to be given a reminder as to what it was that we used to get right against the jacks.