+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
I attended City games from about 1968-1972 when I started playing schoolboy on Saturday afternoons. Back then Swansea Town were a mild curiosity, an irrelevancy really, mired in the fourth division with the likes of Bradford Park Avenue. I've lived in North America since 1978, and was quite surprised to hear that animosity had grown up between the two clubs. Swansea gave us John Charles, after all. That should count for something.
Personally, I've always had a soft spot for Wrexham. I like the name, and being up north feels more like "proper" Wales.
Despise the city, it's odious small town mentality population and the club.
Regardless of our views whether our rivalry with Bristol City or Swansea is more intense I think what is clear is that in Swansea there is no such doubt. When I did the bubble earlier in the season the intensity of feeling from the people we passed being bussed to the ground, in the stadium and the reaction of the players to the result gives an emotional edge that I don't think we have. I don't know whether it goes back to the Dave Jones "it's just another game" but until we feel it as hard as them I don't think we will get the upper hand.
Good for Harris who seems to be building a bit of grit back into our approach if as and when we play them next.
I think there’s a bit of truth in this, I’ve always sensed it means more to the “average” jack supporter than the “average” city fan and it may filter through to the club and management more than it does or has here in my time.
Just in this thread there’s a broad range of opinion and sentiment, I imagine if you posed a similar question on a swans board it would be one way traffic leaving you in no doubt.
Nowt wrong with that and it’s understandable in football league terms, Swansea is that much more of an outpost than Cardiff is. Within the same radius as each other, city will have played the county, both sets of wurzels, Hereford and the jacks in the last few decades in the league. For them it’s only us within that distance.
For me, I almost don’t feel as if we have a derby in the way that Liverpool clubs, Manchester clubs, London clubs or Glasgow clubs have. Those encounters with the wurzels in the early 00s left a mark on me as a teenager but even now I’d have to say the sting has gone out of that a little.
Do (some) Wurzels hate City as much as (some) City fans detest them?
Worked with a few, Brizzle City and Rovers and although they’re definitely not fussed on us, spend much more time foaming at the mouth about each other.
For clarity here they’re all (Wurzels) six fingered, cousin/sister shaggers. Strange fuuckers all round.
Swansea are more obsessive about City than vice versa. It’s more of a civic thing responsible for that.
Most people's footballing opinions are formed before the age of twenty five I'd say. Swansea were in the Second Division with us for a season or two when I first started watching City, but I was twenty four when I first got to watch us play the jacks in a league match in 1980, so, they were something akin to what Newport are now for us when I was at that age when my thoughts about other sides were being formed.
Under those circumstances, it's hardly surprising that I can't get as worked up about the jacks as some, but, by the same token, it would be daft for someone who grew up watching us play derbies against them on a pretty regular basis since 1980 to feel like I do when it comes to them and the wurzels.
As for the Swansea attitude towards Cardiff City and ours towards them, I'd agree that the feelings are more intense on their side - by any measurement, we are unrivalled as to what club are likely to be their biggest rivals. The same is not true on our side - although we don't play them too often, there's a Football League team much closer to Cardiff than Swansea is, Bristol is equidistant to Cardiff as Cardiff is to Swansea and a minority, but a fairly sizeable one, of City fans class the wurzels as our main rival - Swansea invariably have more Welsh players in their sides than we do when the two teams meet which may be a factor when it comes to the attitude they go into the game with.
Did you hear Colin Murray,s comment at the end of the EFL highlights show on Quest. He predicted a Cardiff - Swansea final with a record 99 arrests despite there being no fans there
I stand by my statement that proper Liverpool fans’ rivalry is with Everton. Local rivalry in a two club city such as Liverpool starts in school, then when you’re older in local pubs and clubs, I’d imagine Man United fans are pretty thin on the ground in that city. Now in a playground, pub or club in a two club city such as Bristol there’s most probably a plastic Liverpool/Man Utd rivalry because both local clubs are shite.
I'm old enough to remember the '70s and at that time, as has been said, Cardiff and Bristol City were regular rivals in League Division 2 ( as it was then) and, apart from the Welsh Cup, Swansea and Cardiff seldom clashed because they were stuck lower down the League. Because Swansea were then an irrelevance it was probably quite natural back then to view Bristol City as our derby rivals. Note, however, for the same reason as Swansea, Bristol Rovers were never considered in the same way.
Return to the present day and since Swansea, let's face it, have actually surpassed us on football success in recent years, Swansea have become our main rivals for a majority of fans and particularly those under 50, I'd say.
My own opinion is that Cardiff - Swansea is a real derby in the sense of what traditional football rivalries have always been throughout the world. The Bristol City one is contrived just like Man Utd - Liverpool and Barca - Real Madrid for example.
Traditional rivalries are with your nearest and (definitely NOT) dearest. For big cities it's those clubs sharing the same city, for even bigger clubs it's those sharing the same area of the city (Spurs - Arsenal); for smaller cities and towns it's neighbouring cities and towns within the same region. Norwich - Ipswich for example fighting over bragging rights in East Anglia.
Therefore for us, Swansea ticks all the boxes, they are our nearest neighbours on the same region: Bristol City have nothing to do with us, they're in a separate region altogether so no bragging rights are on offer.
I've actually seen some people even locally (I live in Caerphilly) supporting Swansea and though not diehard fans they are often Rugby supporters too and view Swansea with some affection because of their strong Welsh identity. I think that also explains as someone else has written that years ago Swansea were many Cardiff fans' "second team"
Maybe because of the hooliganism period things have changed now and our rivalries have been adjusted more in line with the customs of the majority of football fans. For me, Swansea are our true rivals because we are both Welsh clubs and not despite it. It's all about bragging rights for your local city or region and having civic pride.
Very revealing post.
In fact it's ridiculous muddled thinking. It's about the team you happen to be facing , wherever they're from, and how to beat them.
" Bragging rights " only really exist if you're in the team, and I should hope most professional footballers have got better things to be doing with their time.
I can see what you and your mate Bob are saying about a mental hierarchy of teams - I still find it strange to see Swansea as a serious team or the likes of Ipswich as strugglers , but we all know really that the world has moved on. Personally I'd bracket Bristol City as the derby game , but then I can remember when Swindon was looked at in that way.
None of it matters at all really though. Each game is a task to be completed successfully and irrespective of the antecedents of the opponents - that is the ethos which brings success in football and many other aspects of life.
I'm in my 40's and can't stand Bristol City but don't mind Swansea at all.
Did move away from South Wales when fairly young though