Cardiff claimed their biggest South Wales derby league win for nearly 60 years with a 3-0 Sky Bet Championship home victory over Swansea.
Callum Robinson’s brace at the start of the second-half put Cardiff in command and Dimitrios Goutas thundered home a header off the underside of the crossbar to ram home their superiority.
It ended a run of six games without home joy for Cardiff and secured the biggest league victory over their arch-rivals since winning 5-0 at Ninian Park in April 1965.
The only negative note for Cardiff was Omer Riza’s red card in stoppage time.
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Cardiff City’s Callum Robinson scored a brace in under five minutes in their South Wales derby against Swansea.
The Bluebirds boss tangled on the touchline with Swansea midfielder Goncalo Franco, and there were more ill-tempered scenes at the final whistle as both sets of players clashed.
How the mood had changed since several hundred Cardiff fans marched to the stadium before kick-off in protest against owner Vincent Tan and the club’s board.
Cardiff players wore black armbands in memory of Riza’s father Josh after the Bluebirds boss announced his death on social media on Thursday.
Riza took his seat in the dugout to warm applause and in need of a win with Cardiff kicking off only one point above the relegation zone.
Swansea started the weekend in the more comfortable position of 12th, but storm clouds had emerged with three successive away defeats in all competitions.
Callum Robinson of Cardiff City celebrates his second goal against Swansea City
Joe Allen – who scored in this fixture in 2009 – attempted to change that by winning a free-kick which forced Cardiff to defend their box and Franco fired a half-chance over after the ball fell to him.
Rare room opened up for Alex Robertson to drive wide and Cardiff built up a head of steam in the final 10 minutes of a disappointing first half.
Robertson’s corner was helped on by Goutas and Calum Chambers was unable to seize on Matt Grimes’ poor clearance.
Chambers went closer less than 60 seconds later, this time hitting the target after centre-backs Goutas and Jesper Daland caused confusion, but sound positioning from Lawrence Vigouroux snuffed out the danger.
Robertson’s free-kick almost caught Vigouroux by surprise and the Swansea goalkeeper was relieved as Robinson spurned the best chance of the half with a tame effort from 12 yards when unmarked.
Robinson was not so charitable within two minutes of the restart, taking Ollie Tanner’s cross on his chest and delivering a left-footed shot into the bottom corner of the net.
The Republic of Ireland striker capitalised on Josh Tymon’s misdirected pass to Harry Darling four minutes later to again beat Vigouroux with a low shot into the corner.
Goutas powered in Robertson’s corner midway through the second half to put the seal on an emphatic victory – only Cardiff’s second win in eight derby meetings.
The managers
Cardiff’s assistant manager Tom Ramasut:
“It’s been an increasingly difficult week. Omer drove back home on Wednesday to spend some time with his father.
“He took training on Thursday, did the (pre-match) media, signed Yousef (Salech), and drove back home to spend the last moments with his father. He then drove back down and prepared for the game on Friday.
“What’s been such a warming feeling is the support he’s had from the players and staff – the togetherness we’ve shown – and he’s taken a lot of comfort from that.”
Swansea’s Luke Williams:
“From our point of view it’s pathetic. If we think that in any way that’s going to in some way take attention away from a shoddy performance, we’re very much mistaken.
“The time for fighting was on the pitch, fighting for the ball, fighting for our fans to make one more run forward, make one more tackle, jump for one more header.
“To try to make more one more action to the box, to try to make one more recovery run when your legs have gone.
“That’s fighting, not scrapping on the pitch and swearing and pushing.”
