Given our poor recent performances, there are those who are saying that avoiding becoming the first team to suffer a league double against them in the south Wales derby is the only thing we’re playing for now this season. I disagree with that, although it’s a long shot now, sixth place is still on for us and, as far as the derby goes, I’ll be okay with a defeat on Saturday if the team do something that they haven’t done in a long while – show that they get what the game means.
Anyway, here’s the usual seven questions on our next opponents dating back to the sixties, I’ll post the answers on here on Sunday.
60s. Starting off at the Oval, this winger moved on to a red and blue army that played at a rented ground and was part of what is still a unique event for them.- it was something which led to him signing for a Yorkshire club who were finding City quite problematic at the time. He was unable to settle though and so returned to where he had come from after just a season. Bigger clubs were still looking at him however and he was snapped up by a team that was undergoing something of a revolution at the time under the leaderships of a former centre forward. Having won a title, he was transferred to Swansea around the middle of the decade, but was nowhere near as successful as he experienced two relegations. Upon his release by the jacks, he signed up with the army for a third time and proved he still had plenty to offer on the playing front, so much so that when he took charge of the team, it was as a player/manager – he also had a second stint as manager in his forties and, internationally, he won amateur and full caps for his country, who is he?
70s. This centreback made his league debut at Ninian Park at the age of seventeen early in this decade for a club which, at that time, gave the impression that they didn’t quite know their name or what colours they should be playing in. Over the next four seasons, he was a fairly regular opponent of ours, winning only once and always wearing red, but then he moved on to Swansea for a brief spell where he came up against us twice, drawing one and losing one as we closed in on a notable double. can you name him?
80s. Silly dude we got the better of just twice during this decade when he was wearing a Swansea shirt.(6,5)
90s. Okay for complementary pip?
00s. Southport combo split the difference and end up in Newcastle?
10s. Starting off at a club I always associate with cleaning fluid, this winger played his first senior football for a city with a war time association with Wales while on loan. After four seasons of moderate success when it came to establishing himself in the first team at his parent club, he moved on to a club that has good relations with Swansea. Such was his form with his new team that he earned a move to perform in front of the yellow wall, but an ACL injury after just three appearances held him back and he was eventually released, whereupon he returned home to sign for cup fighting cathedral citizens. Swansea were his next club and his one experience of a south Wales derby did not go well as his team suffered because of Aaron Wildig’s finest moment in a City shirt. Leaving Swansea after a couple of seasons, he returned to the cathedral dwellers before retiring at thirty five, but can you name him?
20s. A member of the Swansea squad when they visited Cardiff City Stadium last season, his last appearance in this country was just over a year ago when he came on as a sub for Marvelous, who is he?
Answers:
60s. Billy Humphries’ first senior side was Glentoran (home ground the Oval) and he signed for Ards from them in 1955. Two years later, he was part of the Ards side that won its only league title so far and this led to a move to Leeds, who City were beating at Elland Road in the Third Round of the FA Cup on an annual basis at that time. Humphries couldn’t settle though and headed back to Ards where he stayed for the next three years before returning to Great Britain to play for Jimmy Hill’s Coventry City. Moving on to Swansea, Humphries made nearly one hundred and fifty league appearances for them, but couldn’t stop the team from sliding down from the Second to the Fourth Division while he was there. He was back at Ards in 1968 and only retired from playing at the age of thirty nine, by which time he was also managing the club – the first of his fourteen caps for Northern Ireland was won against Wales in 1962 and he also was awarded three Amateur international caps by that country.
70s. Paul Harris’ first league game was for Orient (a club that had seen many changes of name and kit in their history up to then) in 1-0 loss at Ninian Park in May 1971. He was a regular member of the Orient team over the next four seasons, but was released by them in 1975 and he next came across us again in 75/76 in the Welsh Cup when he was in their teams which drew 1-1 at Ninian Park and were then beaten 3-0 at the Vetch as we ended that season with the trophy to go with a promotion from the old Third Division.
80s. Dudley Lewis.
90s. Roger Freestone.
00s. Jordi Gomez.
10s. Cedric Van Der Gun was loaned by Ajax to Den Bosch as a youngster and then moved to Den Haag on a permanent basis in 2003.Two years later, he signed for Borussia Dortmund, but injury meant that he barely got to play for their first team in the three years he was there. Signing for FC Utrecht on his release, he was still troubled by injuries, but gradually regained fitness and moved to Swansea in 2009. Van Der Gun’s one appearance in a derby game came in April 2010 when Aaron Wildig’s assist set up the goal by Michael Chopra which gave City a 2-1 victory at Cardiff City Stadium. Van Der Gun returned to Utrecht in 2012 some seven months after he had been released by Swansea and retired from the game in 2014.
20s. Borja Baston was an unused sub for Swansea in their 0-0 draw at Cardiff City Stadium in January of last year. Shortly after that game, he was signed by Aston Villa on a free transfer and the second of the two substitute appearances he made for them before his release in the summer came when he replaced Marvelous Nakamba in a 2-0 loss at Southampton.