Sunday
22nd November 1998.
Kick off 12 midday.

Swansea City
Freestone
Jones, S
Howard
Cusack
Smith
Bound
Price
Thomas
Newhouse (Alsop 52)
Watkin
Appleby

Subs not used
Jenkins
Roberts

Cardiff City
Hallworth
Delaney
Ford
Mitchell
Young
Carpenter
Fowler
O'Sullivan
Williams (Allen 62)
Nugent
Middleton (Hill 84)

Subs not used
Eckhardt

It would be no understatement to say that the first-half was the most one-
sided 45 minutes of action I have ever seen involving Cardiff and Swansea.
The only reason City lost was because we did not kill them off. We missed
great chances, Freestone made a couple of magical saves and at one-nil up at
half-time, many City's fans worries came true.

A fairer reflection of the first-half would have been at least 3 goals to
City. We had 10 or 11 corners to their 1, shots every couple of minutes and
were dominant in every area. If it was boxing, it would have been stopped
before half-time.

City carried on where they left off against Chester and took the game to
Swansea. The midfield took control, defence were confident and had no
problems against a lightweight attack of Newhouse and Watkin and played all
the football. Swansea were spectators and could not match Cardiff. They were
reduced to breaks, being physical and kicking City players. I think they had
4 booked in the first-half and it could have been a couple more.

City goal came on 4 minutes. A corner was swept in by Carpenter, flicked on
to the back post where Nugent shot. Freestone saved well but pushed the ball
into the air. It came back to John Williams who leapt up acrobatically and
flicked the ball back, high into the net. Cue the chants of "1-0 to the
Capital" from City fans going mental.

In fairness, Swansea's support was raucous all match especially on the North
Bank.

Some guys in the Subbuteo Stand (as it was dubbed) chanted too but just had to
be laughed at. They didn't have to get up at 7am or earlier though, did they?
But they were loud, probably louder than City although the roof on the North
Bank and half of it being boarded up helped.

City ploughed on relentlessly especially on the wings where Delaney was class
in everything that he did on the right (much better crossing - he is obviously
working on passing in the area or low crosses rather than high curlers) whilst
Jason was the same on the left with Williams' pace causing havoc everywhere.
Swansea's defence looked poor with no marking, especially at corners and they
simply could not match City at playing football.

Middleton should have made it 2-0 when a Delaney low centre saw his first
effort blocked but his second attempt, stabbed narrowly wide when clear 8
yards out. Freestone made save from a Fowler howitzer (he wouldn't have saved
it is went 3 foot either side of him), Carpenter, Nugent and Williams and
others had chances blocked saved, going close or wide. Mike Ford should have
scored when a Delaney cross saw him free and unmarked on the 6 yard box but
his header drifted wide when he should have done better.

Another short corner nearly produced the second goal. Fowler seemed to mishit
a shot outside the area but it found Nugent who steered the ball towards goal
from 10 yards. Freestone pushed it away for a corner - a stunning save. It
was one of those games where you didn't want half-time to come. City had a
well deserved lead but showed their frailities again. How could they only
have 1 goal to show in a half when they embarrassed the opposition constantly
for 45 minutes?

Ominously, City fans saw Alsop (6 ft 4in striker) warming up, knew he would be
on early in the 2nd half and could tell what was coming. How come City didn't
seem to know or deal with it?

City started the second-half in the same vein. Nugent cracked a shot narrowly
wide from a Williams flick on and 2 other shots followed before Alsop came on
and the game started to change.

All of a sudden, Swansea's main tactic of Route One high balls had a target
man and City's defence, who hardly lost a header in the 1st half, were now
hardly winning one.

Delaney stopped going forward, Carpenter's distribution was poor and at team
who were defending from the front could hardly break up front.

Cardiff weren't helped by not getting protection from the ref. He booked
Swansea players first half for high challenges but forgot to do it for Alsop
that he hacked a City player down. He also gave Swansea a free-kick when
Jason Price elbowed O'Sullivan in the face and the game had to be stopped for
a couple of minutes.

City still looked comfortable and Hallworth was not called on to make his
second save until more than an hour had gone. Then another disaster struck.
John Williams was stretchered off. Not sure what happened but must have been
a late tackle.

Chris Allen came on and did absolutely nothing. Please send him back City -
he is not trying. His only run of the afternoon was when he stupidly gave the
ball away in a good position to Jason Price, chased him back 80 yards and then
hacked him down for a booking. I hope he goes back to Nottingham and into
hiding with Robin Hood - he'd be suited as he's robbing us!

Swansea equalised on 70 minutes with the first league goal City conceded in
more than 7 hours. A through ball was met by Alsop and met by Martin Thomas
who planted a shot over Hallworth (to me, he could have tried to jump and tip
it - is his leg injury playing up?).

City were powder-puff up front and many fans were calling for Jeff Eckhardt to
come on. He would have won headers at the back and been better than Allen up
front.

If Jeff Eckhardt came on, we wouldn' t have lost. Instead Frankie brought
on Danny Hill for Middleton - why???

Swansea didn't look like winning for all their physical play. Most
disappointing for me was that Swansea knew they could only beat us by kicking
City about but we had no answer to it. It was the same at Merthyr. It's
going to be a hard winter unless they toughen up. City allowed Swansea to
take control without great resistance which was unforgiveable.

Swansea didn't look like winning but then, they won. A corner was met by Mike
Ford (unbelievably poor game and his passing was crap) who headed the ball
straight into the air. No City defender attacked it as it came down and they
seemed to go asleep and watch as Bound touched the ball before blasting past
Hallworth with 3 minutes to go.

City had one chance afterwads as Scott Young curled a shot narrowly wide but
it was soon all over. City were clapped off by most fans but we felt sick
inside. That was 3 easy points dropped, make no mistake. City should have
won by two clear goals and the second-half should have been irrelevant.

Report by Gary Martin (Swansea City)

What a match! Cardiff were absolutely brilliant - first half, but once
Hollins' drugs wore off and he took off Newhouse the tables were
turned.

Cardiff had obviously done their homework - allowing Swansea no
room at all. Freestone didn't have one opportunity to throw the ball
out and was restricted to upfield punts which were easily gobbled
up by the Cardiff back 5.

A wicked swerve on a corner saw the ball headed across goal from
the near post and in the melee that followed, Williams was fisrt to
react with an overhead kick.

Cardiff continued to impress and could have added to their tally.
Our only opportunity was a half-hearted penalty appeal on Watkin
when he was grabbed around the shoulders.

Mercifully half-time arrived without further damage.

Cardiff started the 2nd half where they'd left off in the first. After 5
mins, the NB decided to spring into voice and a 10 minute rendition
of Johnny Hollins B&W army, coupled with the subbing of
Newhouse with Alsop brought about a transformation - in fact you
wouldn't believe you were watching the same two teams!

Swansea piled on the pressure and Thomas lashed home the
equaliser on 69th minute. A throgh ball was headed on into the
area and Thomas was first to react.

Cardiff were penned in their own area for long periods and several
floted free kicks exposed Hallwoth as a dodgy keeper. A couple of
efforts were scrambled off the line but the crowd were incensed
when another free kick/corner was punched behind by a Cardiff
defender only for the poor referee to signal a goal kick.

The Jack fans erupted when Bound crashed home the winner
minutes from time - again after a bit of a scramble around the box.

The after-match celebrations by the players were reminiscent of a
Wembley final.

What a game - I was there!