Cardiff City recorded their first South Wales derby victory in thirteen years as Swansea missed the chance to make history by being the first side to complete the league derby double in an emphatic and passionate advert for the resurgence of Welsh football.

The Swans went ahead on the half hour mark after soaking up early Cardiff pressure and had begun to impose themselves at the Cardiff City Stadium when Andrea Orlandi’s corner went straight in though appeared to take a deflection off David Marshall’s hand.

And they should have doubled their lead just before half time when Cedric Van Der Gun dribbled past some lacklustre Cardiff challenges only to side-foot into the path of Marshall’s outstretched arms.

That miss was to immediately prove costly as the ball went down the other end and a cross met by Bothroyd was headed into the path of Michael Chopra whose instinctive finish lashed home into the roof of the net.

After the half, Swansea continued to dominate as they have done the last few derby occasions however as so many times this season failed to convert their chances and thought they had grabbed the winner late on.

Pintado had been substituted for Shefki Kuqi and the big Finn rose highest for Cardiff-born David Cotterill’s cross to power his header home only for a last-ditch outstretched foot from Marshall saving what would have been the winner for the Swans.

And once more having saved crucially, Marshall sent the ball down the other end of the park and as Swansea failed to clear their lines a quick ball back in by youngster Aaron Wildig found Chopra bearing down on Dorus De Vries who could do nothing as the £4m Geordie emphatically finished to effectively secure Cardiff’s play-off spot and leaving Swansea looking a little over their shoulders at the chasing pack of Leicester and Blackpool with just five games remaining of the season.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones:

“We’ve had tough games against them, they’re a very good side.

“Probably caught Paulo (Swansea manager Sousa) a little bit with our formation, we changed it round because… they’ve caused us problems in the past.

“I feel we’ve got just as good players on the ball as their midfield but the most important thing for us is we know we can score goals.”

Swans boss Paulo Sousa:

“When you dominate completely the game, when you get more and better chances than them (defeat is difficult).

“But football it’s that, we need to turn this moment, not an easy moment… we deserved to win this game.

“We have a lot of games until the end of the season, to keep the position we have now (in the play-offs).”

Attendance: 25,130
Referee: Phil Dowd

Jon Osterland