" CARDIFF CITY/BRISTOL CITY & SWANSEA "

Why Cardiff City v Bristol City is more important than Swansea City rivalry to some fans


Chris Wathan

22/10/2015

It would be fair to say that there has been little love lost between Cardiff City and Bristol City down the decades.

There may be just 43 miles between the two proud cities, and that famous bridge, of course, but rarely have the two clubs, and their sets of supporters, quite seen eye-to-eye.

And now, after a break of almost three years, they’ll be facing each other again.... the Severnside derby is back.

Indeed, there is an argument to be made that Monday’s clash in the Welsh capital is of more significance in derby terms than that other old classic, the Bluebirds against their Welsh neighbours Swansea City.


In recent years, it is the South Wales derby that seems to have risen to prominence. The clash for supremacy in Wales itself leading to passion on the pitch and often ugly scenes off it. Right now, of course, the battle to find out who is the best seems firmly to have been won by west Wales outfit.





But, for perhaps your slightly-older Bluebirds’ supporter, those of a certain vintage, the meeting with Bristol City is the one that really sets the pulses racing. In fact, in decades gone by, an all-Wales clash with Swansea or even close neighbours Newport, was regarded of secondary importance compared to Severnside derby.

The reason for this, of course, is pretty self-evident. Swansea are Swansea, but Bristol City possess one extra factor – they are English!

Now inter-Welsh rivalry is all well and good, but as we see in everything, including the Rugby World Cup recently, if there is anything the Welsh like doing more than anything else, it is getting one over the ‘Old Enemy’.

For me it was always Bristol City/ Newport County and Bristol Rovers before Swansea, as the Jacks were nobodies.

But I have to admit due to the Jacks now being above us in a lot of things and seeing kids in Jack tops in Cardiff and in many parts of South Wales, I have started to think a lot more about them as rivals etc

I look to Swansea more than anyone else has rivals

I think it's always been Bristol as our main rivals, but success has seen Swansea become a bigger rivalry in recent years? Some fans will always see Bristol City as our main rivals though and I agree with that.

Similar to Man Utd and their rivals really. Their biggest rivals have always been Liverpool but now if you ask their fans, a lot will say Man City because they're doing well on the pitch?

Always been Bristol City as my main rivals

I think it goes in cycles but whoever is in your division makes a difference. I started watching in the mid 70s and for me it's always been Swansea but they are so far ahead of us in every department at the moment it hardly matters. I'm sure if they were demoted or us promoted it would be Swansea again. As it was when we were in the PL, hardly a mention of Bristol City being our main rivals then.

Historically it's the wurzels however since the 80s it's been the jacks. Up until early 90s I disliked the wurzels more than the jacks. I lived for 2 years in Carmarthen in early 90s and there were half a dozen jacks and they really hated us with a passion. Due to numerous falling outs with them over football my dislike for the jacks started to grow and for me they are the team I dislike the most.

I look to Swansea more than anyone else has rivals

And me.

It all depends how old you are I'd have thought. If you're over 50 then it would be the 2 Brizzles, if you're under that then the Jacks. When Swansea gained promotion to the old Division 1 [now the Prem] beating Preston away, loads of Cardiff fans cheered when they heard the result! Our lot I'm pleased to say didn't...

We down here in port talbot dislike the jacks we can put up with the port talbot jacks because we have all grown up in the same streets schools football teams even certain family's have splits some cousins like swansea others cardiff it really is the fans who come from swansea we dislike.cardiff and Swansea is a Welsh Derby they are a good forty five miles apart not a local derby but when you speak to certain cardiff lads a lot of them say newport is there biggest rivals as its only ten miles from cardiff some say Bristol City or rovers I have no love of Bristol City but I would probley view swansea as our rivals

Always be the Bristol sides !

Bristol City for me. Grew up with them as our main rivals. Truth is, though, we are a one club city. Bristol, and Swansea, are forty miles away from us. Rivalries, more than derbies.

We down here in port talbot dislike the jacks we can put up with the port talbot jacks because we have all grown up in the same streets schools football teams even certain family's have splits some cousins like swansea others cardiff it really is the fans who come from swansea we dislike.cardiff and Swansea is a Welsh Derby they are a good forty five miles apart not a local derby but when you speak to certain cardiff lads a lot of them say newport is there biggest rivals as its only ten miles from cardiff some say Bristol City or rovers I have no love of Bristol City but I would probley view swansea as our rivals

It's little different for me, I hate ALL jacks! my brother, my next door neighbour, even my doctor, their all the same to me and cant stand the fookers.

Jacks just edge it, my first away match as a boy and that is the deciding factor. Never forget it 1-0 pike welsh cup, The smell, the noise, the passion, hatred, unreal great memory that

!

For me it was always Bristol City/ Newport County and Bristol Rovers before Swansea, as the Jacks were nobodies.

But I have to admit due to the Jacks now being above us in a lot of things and seeing kids in Jack tops in Cardiff and in many parts of South Wales, I have started to think a lot more about them as rivals etc

Agree with above! Cewnty just edge worzels for me. The Jacks are just a bunch of inbreds who live off the "swim away" incident. Cewnty I detest due to their frequent "visits" to us in the 80's when they knew Cardiff were away. Plus as the Worzels are English, enough said!!

Swansea for me. But I have always said I detest England more than Swansea so its anybody against Cardiff/Wales

I actually despise the jacks and would even say I hate Leeds more than the Wurzels but it's still a good Derby and I look foward to us beating them 2-0

Always been Bristol City for me although as I work in Bristol a lot it has an extra edge.
People might not realise it but some of them really really can't stand the Welsh

Bristol City for me. Grew up with them as our main rivals. Truth is, though, we are a one club city. Bristol, and Swansea, are forty miles away from us. Rivalries, more than derbies.

I agree with that mate

Why Cardiff City v Bristol City is more important than Swansea City rivalry to some fans


Chris Wathan

22/10/2015

It would be fair to say that there has been little love lost between Cardiff City and Bristol City down the decades.

There may be just 43 miles between the two proud cities, and that famous bridge, of course, but rarely have the two clubs, and their sets of supporters, quite seen eye-to-eye.

And now, after a break of almost three years, they’ll be facing each other again.... the Severnside derby is back.

Indeed, there is an argument to be made that Monday’s clash in the Welsh capital is of more significance in derby terms than that other old classic, the Bluebirds against their Welsh neighbours Swansea City.


In recent years, it is the South Wales derby that seems to have risen to prominence. The clash for supremacy in Wales itself leading to passion on the pitch and often ugly scenes off it. Right now, of course, the battle to find out who is the best seems firmly to have been won by west Wales outfit.





But, for perhaps your slightly-older Bluebirds’ supporter, those of a certain vintage, the meeting with Bristol City is the one that really sets the pulses racing. In fact, in decades gone by, an all-Wales clash with Swansea or even close neighbours Newport, was regarded of secondary importance compared to Severnside derby.

The reason for this, of course, is pretty self-evident. Swansea are Swansea, but Bristol City possess one extra factor – they are English!

Now inter-Welsh rivalry is all well and good, but as we see in everything, including the Rugby World Cup recently, if there is anything the Welsh like doing more than anything else, it is getting one over the ‘Old Enemy’.

Not according to your attendance's all games at ninnian park

april 1981 v Bristol city 5575
dec 1980 v swans 21198

aug 85 v swans Lcup 4218
dec 85 v swans 8375
sept 85 v Bristol 4412

april 89 v Bristol 6358
dec 88 v swans 10675
sept 89 v Bristol 5970
april 90 v swans 8356

aug 92 v Bristol L cup 4066
dec 93 v swans 9815

feb 2000 v Bristol 6586
april 99 v swans 10809

Two Severnside derbies in two days!

Sat;
Bristol Rovers v Newport County

Mon;
Cardiff City v Bristol City

I hope the Wurzels take a double battering from South East Wales!

CW is to young to remember the 70's and the real love-in that was happening, 74 to the present day, good times but rough and tumble. Whilst swansea may have not played cardiff that much, Welsh games were always lively

Been supporting Swansea City since 1983 so cardiff along with Brizzle Rovers as rivals for me back then because lets be fair to the left of Swansea is Folly farm and the Irish sea ,my first Welsh derby game was at the Vetch on a really warm April day Swansea won 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half time and Dean Saunders scored for us by far the best derby game I've ever been to and fair play cardiff came in numbers, but I seem to remember cardiff fans charging into the North bank and a a handful jumping over the fence down into the terrace about a 6ft drop only to turn around and see the rest of the cardiff fans didn't fancy it....woops

Swansea City F.C is now a world apart from cardiff and I'm not really bothered if cardiff win or lose it doesn't bother me now. when I'm bored in work I do come on here for a nose about just as much as I do on other football forums if I was a neutral fan I would still see cardiff the same way as Leeds,Millwall,Portsmouth dirty horrible clubs stuck in the dark days but just a newer ground than the others

For me it was always Bristol City/ Newport County and Bristol Rovers before Swansea, as the Jacks were nobodies.

But I have to admit due to the Jacks now being above us in a lot of things and seeing kids in Jack tops in Cardiff and in many parts of South Wales, I have started to think a lot more about them as rivals etc

Talking rubbish again I see Annis, one question, who one the race?


For some years away fans were banned from this fixture, which gives you some idea of how bad it got. There was the 1988 incident when a bunch of Cardiff fans were chased into the sea outside the Vetch Field - to this day, Swansea fans wear armbands and swimming caps. Heavy-duty policing has largely taken the violence out of the occasion, but not the seething menace, a swirl of political and cultural and social grievances. And that's before you even get to the football, which in recent years has seen Wales's two big teams engaged in a furious race to the Premier League. It's the perfect rivalry: heartfelt, meaningful and completely off its head.

As I said in my earlier post, those of us of a certain age would consider the 2 Bristol teams as our main rivals, I would say people who are roughly under 50 would think of Swansea as our main rivals. It's no big deal, Swansea's winning results were cheered at Ninian Park in the 70's, as you were of no significance to us. Pretty much the same as we're nowhere near your standard now, and probably don't occupy many of your fans thoughts, swings and roundabouts...

As I said in my earlier post, those of us of a certain age would consider the 2 Bristol teams as our main rivals, I would say people who are roughly under 50 would think of Swansea as our main rivals. It's no big deal, Swansea's winning results were cheered at Ninian Park in the 70's, as you were of no significance to us. Pretty much the same as we're nowhere near your standard now, and probably don't occupy many of your fans thoughts, swings and roundabouts...

I don't buy 50 as the age threshold, think about it, in 1978, a certain john Benjamin toshack became our manager, and it was rife then and throughout the 70's and 80's.
I remember games in the 60's when there was no segregation, most fans would happily clap the other teams good play or a goal but there was just as likely to be a dust up too.
The 50's would see fans of Swansea visiting Ninian Park if the Swans were away and visa versa,

Whiterock, a sensible reply and thanks for that...all I can say is growing up in the Rhondda, and starting to attend games in 1970, the 2 Bristol teams were considered our main rivals throughout that first ten years of going to matches. As for people who lived in the 2 respective cities, I have no idea. At Cardiff we used to fight each other at home games if there were no away fans!

As I said in my earlier post, those of us of a certain age would consider the 2 Bristol teams as our main rivals, I would say people who are roughly under 50 would think of Swansea as our main rivals. It's no big deal, Swansea's winning results were cheered at Ninian Park in the 70's, as you were of no significance to us. Pretty much the same as we're nowhere near your standard now, and probably don't occupy many of your fans thoughts, swings and roundabouts...

I don't buy 50 as the age threshold, think about it, in 1978, a certain john Benjamin toshack became our manager, and it was rife then and throughout the 70's and 80's.
I remember games in the 60's when there was no segregation, most fans would happily clap the other teams good play or a goal but there was just as likely to be a dust up too.
The 50's would see fans of Swansea visiting Ninian Park if the Swans were away and visa versa,

My grandad who lived in Cardiganshire would go and watch both teams in late 40s and 50s. Cardiff were his team but he also followed Swansea and wanted them to do well. If he knew my views he'd be turning in his grave.

1) Bristol City and Bristol Rovers
2) Swansea City
3) Newport County

As I said in my earlier post, those of us of a certain age would consider the 2 Bristol teams as our main rivals, I would say people who are roughly under 50 would think of Swansea as our main rivals. It's no big deal, Swansea's winning results were cheered at Ninian Park in the 70's, as you were of no significance to us. Pretty much the same as we're nowhere near your standard now, and probably don't occupy many of your fans thoughts, swings and roundabouts...

I don't buy 50 as the age threshold, think about it, in 1978, a certain john Benjamin toshack became our manager, and it was rife then and throughout the 70's and 80's.
I remember games in the 60's when there was no segregation, most fans would happily clap the other teams good play or a goal but there was just as likely to be a dust up too.
The 50's would see fans of Swansea visiting Ninian Park if the Swans were away and visa versa,

My grandad who lived in Cardiganshire would go and watch both teams in late 40s and 50s. Cardiff were his team but he also followed Swansea and wanted them to do well. If he knew my views he'd be turning in his grave.

There were 3 blokes in the early 70's in the Canton Stand from Haverfordwest, they'd watch Cardiff one week and Swansea the next. When the Jacks got in the top tier in the early 80's, I know of a few people with Cardiff tats who used to stand on the North Bank week in week out!