Frustration Again For Cardiff And Swansea Who Are Yet To Taste That Winning Feeling


The frustration goes on for Cardiff City and Swansea City who are both still looking for their first victories of the season in the Championship.

Between them, the clubs have played six matches but neither has yet tasted victory.

At the weekend, Cardiff lost 2-1 at Leicester City – and while there were positives, such as an incredible first goal since his return for Aaron Ramsey – the club could not come away with any points.

At least the Swans managed to pick up one point, from a 1-1 draw at home to Coventry City, but it was a case of what might have been for head coach Michael Duff.

Erol Bulut had the same vibes at Leicester and the Bluebirds manager is still searching for his first victory in the job after three Championship matches.

Debutant Cesare Casadei came off the bench to score the late goal that secured Leicester the win that enabled the Foxes to celebrate four straight wins at the start of a season for the first time in the club’s history.

A superb strike from Ramsey – his first goal for the club in 12 years – looked like earning Cardiff a point after Wanya Marcal-Madivadua had fired Enzo Maresca’s hosts ahead.

But on-loan Chelsea midfielder Casadei had the last word to leave Cardiff, who saw defender Mahlon Romeo sent off deep into stoppage time, winless after two defeats and a draw under Bulut.

“What I have to say, and I have said it also before in Leeds, where we were leading at 90-plus, is that football is details,” said the Turkish boss.

“With details you win, with details you lose.

Duff insists it is too soon to panic after summer signing Jerry Yates bagged his second goal of the campaign to earn his new side a draw with Coventry.

The visiting Sky Blues were wasteful in the first half but took the lead through what was one of their only two shots on target in the game as Matty Godden netted in the 39th minute.

But Yates, who arrived from Blackpool for a reported £2.5million this summer, equalised two minutes later with his second goal in as many home appearances for the Swans.

It leaves the Swans with two points from two draws and a defeat from the opening three league matches and 18th in the early table.

“It’s never going to happen overnight,” Duff said.

“The same things happened at my last two clubs. I didn’t win a game for 10 games at Cheltenham, 18 months later we won the league.

“The same thing happened at Barnsley. We were seventh or eighth or ninth in the league for the first three months, then were the most in-form team in the country from November on.

“I want to win as much as anyone else. I also understand there’s a process, a step by step. In this league, no-one comes along and says ‘there’s a win’.”

Wrexham shared an astonishing 5-5 draw at home to Swindon Town, which felt like a victory as they had been 4-1 down.

A spirited fightback saw them pull it back to 4-3 before Daniel Kemp had seemingly wrapped things up for the visitors by adding a fifth with 20 minutes to go.

But, Wrexham had other ideas as two stoppage time goals from James Jones and Elliot Lee secured the comeback.

Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson said: “Where do you start? At 4-1 down at half-time I was confident we could respond and that’s a credit to the group.

“But we’ve also got to be honest that the very basics have got to be so much better.”

The best result of the weekend for the Welsh clubs came from Wrexham’s League Two rivals Newport County, who won 3-0 away at Forest Green Rovers.

Will Evans scored twice and there was a late goal to seal it from Adam Lewis.

Newport manager Graham Coughlan said: “The lads were very good today. They took a bit of flak from me in the week, and they certainly came out and answered me – especially in the first half.

“I was really pleased with them and the way they reacted from the Crewe game.

“Let’s hope I don’t have to go toe-to-toe and head-to-head with them too often because they’re a really great group of lads.”