Heroes & Villains – Cardiff City
Heroes – 1927 FA Cup Winning Team
When Cardiff City beat Arsenal 1-0 to win the FA Cup in 1927, it was the only time that the FA Cup left England in it’s history. This record still stands 93 years on.
The only goal of the game came after 74 minutes. Cardiff’s Hughie Ferguson hit a weak shot at goal. Arsenal goalkeeper Dan Lewis collected the ball but let the ball slip out of his grasp and the ball hit his elbow and rolled over the line. Lewis blamed his new woollen jersey, claiming that it was too greasy. A new tradition at Arsenal was started after this. The staff at Arsenal always washed their goalkeeper’s jersey before every match to prevent this from occurring again!
The Cardiff team that day was: Farquharson, Nelson, Watson, Keenor, Sloan, Hardy, Curtis, Irving, Ferguson, Davies, McLachlan.
Villains – Swansea City
It’s fair to say that these two Welsh clubs really don’t like each other!
The two both play in the English Football League and compete to be the top Welsh club.
Cardiff have won the South Wales Derby 44 times, Swansea have won 36 and there have been 28 draws. The last match between the two ended in a 0-0 stalemate on 12th January of this year.
Crowd trouble had become commonplace at football grounds in the 1980’s and early 90’s. They all came to a head on 22nd December 1993, in a match between the two sides at Cardiff’s Ninian Park home.
The game became known as ‘The Battle of Ninian Park’ and after Cardiff took the lead, Swansea fans began ripping seats out of the grandstand. They threw the seats at Cardiff’s fans and this in turn caused a pitch invasion by the Cardiff fans where fights broke out between both sets of supporters. Police dogs and mounted police officers had to go onto the pitch to quell the trouble and maintain order.
Incidents that day would lead to a complete ban of away fans at future games. This became the first fixture in British history to have a ban away fans from attending.
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