We haven’t beaten our neighbours at this level since 2020 and the hoodoo continued tonight at a well packed Landore academy. The weather was dreadful and the atmosphere was boisterous.
Swans lined up 4-3-3: Evan Watts; Arthur Parker, Iestyn Jones (s – Zac Jeanes 73m), Richard Faakye, Seb Dabrowski; Mitchell Bates (captain), Jacob Cook (s – Thomas Woodward 65m), Ben Lloyd; Glory Nzingo, Sammy Henia-Kamau (s – Kyrell Wilson 46m), Aimar Govea (s- Morgan Bates 65m). Unused sub: Kit Margetson (g/k).
Cardiff featured a number of players familiar from recent encounters. One particular new face – centre forward Michael Reindorf, a Summer signing from Norwich – separated the sides tonight with a well taken goal 3 minutes before half-time.
We’d started very slowly, having something of a torrid time for the opening quarter of an hour, with Cardiff’s movement causing us quite a few problems. Cardiff missed a couple of presentable opportunities.
We appeared to have weathered this early pressure and got back in the game with long distance shots from Lloyd and Cook – both of whom were booked early by an overzealous match official. Richard Faakye had a far post header scrambled away by Cardiff’s keeper Jake Dennis, who also escaped a comical mishap when he cleared straight at Govea, only for the ball to kindly rebound straight back to him.
Iestyn Jones became the 3rd Swan to be cautioned as the 2 sides stretched each other’s defences. Cardiff maintained a high line and Trey George was put through by a fine searching ball that got him behind our back four to give Reindorf a golden chance from close range. 0-1 half-time in what was a keenly contested affair.
Kyrell Wilson entered the fray at half-time, replacing Henia-Kamau, who wasn’t getting a great deal of change up front. Nzingo and Govea continued to switch flanks alongside him until Govea pulled up with cramp, Morgan Bates taking up the centre forward role for the remainder of the match.
We had plenty of possession with not much in the way of clear cut chances, although both Nzingo and Wilson went desperately close.
Cardiff threw on reinforcements and rallied with some scary breakaways, including one where Evan Watts was stranded upfield having joined his colleagues at late corner kicks. Lloyd and Nzingo had last gasp efforts blocked, but it wasn’t to be.
Exciting end to end stuff. The players will no doubt be dismayed not to get something out of the game.
Dabrowski and Woodward were also cautioned, as were 4 Cardiff players, in a match that really didn’t warrant that.
Another strong performance from Richard Faakye – tremendous in the tackle and probing in distribution – plus lots to commend of Mitch Bates and Ben Lloyd, who kept pushing on throughout, ultimately without reward. Evan Watts had one clearance blooper that Cardiff somehow wasted, but he also made a fantastic save from Nyakuhwa’s header as the 2 teams slogged it out in the latter stages of the game.
Let’s hope the first team malaise isn’t spreading!