Sat Apr 02, 2022 10:01 am
By Gareth Vincent
There will be tension in the air when Cardiff City host Swansea City this weekend, with Welsh football's biggest club contest bringing its usual blend of apprehension and anticipation.
The fact that neither team has anything significant to play for in the final stages of the Championship season is irrelevant.
The derby always matters.
This is the game for both clubs to win, with Swansea chasing the first league double in the history of the fixture.
Yet on the touchline at least, the atmosphere may be a little friendlier than normal.
Cardiff boss Steve Morison and Swansea's Russell Martin are former team-mates who enjoyed a successful spell together at Norwich City.
The man who took them both to Carrow Road, Paul Lambert, will watch with interest as "two good guys" square up on Saturday afternoon.
"Not that long ago they were still players, not really knowing what it's like, but now they are into management and doing really well," the former Norwich boss tells BBC Sport Wales.
"I think it's great the two of them are in that firing line."
Lambert first met Martin when he took over at Wycombe Wanderers in 2006.
Martin, then a 20-year-old defender, played his first game under the former Champions League winner in midfield.
"I don't know if he's told you this," Lambert says with a smile, "but I have a standing joke with him that he nearly ruined my career when I played him in midfield.
"I thought 'there's absolutely no way I can play him in there again'. Then I put him back [in defence] and he was brilliant."
When Lambert became Norwich boss in 2009, Martin soon joined him in East Anglia.
The Canaries won the League One title in 2010, then reached the Premier League 12 months later.
"What Russell gave us was great character," Lambert says. "I knew exactly what I would get from him. He went on to do great things with Norwich and got into the Scotland team. His career went really high."
It was following promotion to the top flight that Lambert paid a reported £2.8m to sign Morison from Millwall.
The former non-league striker had never played at the highest level, yet he scored nine Premier League goals in his debut campaign as Norwich finished 12th.
"He was ruthless," Lambert says.
"He probably wasn't the most orthodox centre-forward, the kind that is nice and pretty on the eye. He played to his strengths and made a brilliant career out of it.
"He and Russell were a major part of that success we had."
Morison's then Wales team-mate Andrew Crofts was also a regular in that Norwich side.
"Steve came into a team full of hungry players who had the chance to play in the Premier League," Crofts recalls.
"He fitted in because he'd had to fight his way to the top. He was a nuisance to play against, a real handful."
Crofts, now player-coach with Brighton's under-23s, had played with Martin at Peterborough before they were reunited at Norwich.
"Russ was right-back and I was right of the [midfield] diamond," Crofts adds. "We were close on the pitch and off it.
"We were both really hungry to get the best out of our careers. We got everything we possibly could out of each other, whether it was in the gym, in training or on the pitch."
Morison started his coaching career in Northampton's academy, then took charge of Cardiff's under-23s before stepping up to the first team last October.
Martin was an MK Dons player until the departure of Paul Tisdale saw him become the boss in November 2019.
Lambert always regarded Martin as a manager in the making, so has been more surprised by Morison's move into coaching.
"Russell I probably saw going into it more," he says.
"What Moro (Morison) has done, it's probably like his playing career - he has gone in there, unassuming, and done really well when nobody thought he would go into it."
Crofts says Martin, his next door neighbour in Norwich, was a "student of the game" even in their younger days.
"Russ is enthusiastic, patient, calm and consistent in everything he does," he adds.
"He is very much a people person and I can see him building great relationships with his players and his staff.
"Steve I can see being quite relaxed, but also firm and demanding.
"To get the Cardiff job full-time after being the interim [boss] is a big achievement - he must have really impressed in the time he had.
"Russ did really well going from player to manager at MK Dons and then getting the Swansea job. The way he wants to play is brave and it is always going to take time, but I am excited about what he can build next season."
Cardiff head into the derby having taken 10 points from their last four games, their best run of a season which had threatened to turn into a long relegation scrap.
They are just two points and one place behind 16th-placed Swansea, although Martin's side have a game in hand.
The Swans have drawn, won and lost in their last three outings, a sequence which offers a snapshot of the inconsistency they have shown all season.
Martin's possession-based style is the type Swans fans demand, yet too often in what will go down as a transitional campaign his team have fallen short.
"Football-wise I get it, how he is trying to play," Lambert says. "It looks really pretty on the eye. But Russell will tell you himself that you enjoy it more when you are winning.
"Moro will probably play a different way. He will think 'yeah, we have to win'.
"His style - I am not saying it's more direct or anything like that - but it will be more 'we have to win games'.
"His team will be hard to beat, whereas Russell's team will have more of the ball. It's about converting that into goals."
Given that Cardiff and Swansea first met 110 years ago, it is remarkable that neither side has yet managed a league double.
After their 3-0 home win last October - against a beleaguered Cardiff side who had lost their way under Mick McCarthy - Martin's Swansea have the chance to wipe that statistic from the record books this weekend.
"That will be a real motivation for Swansea," Crofts says, "but stopping it happening will be a motivation for Cardiff."
The feeling is that though they are away from home, Swansea are likely to have more of the ball than their hosts.
Whether that leads to control on the Cardiff City Stadium scoreboard is another matter.
"Russell will go and play the same way," reckons Lambert. "Moro will probably be saying 'get on the front foot against them, don't give them any time'.
"It's an interesting game. Put it this way, I think this game will be harder for Russell than it would have been a couple of months ago."