The best South Wales derby of all time?

Next Sunday sees the first South Wales derby of the season take place at Cardiff, so I thought it would be interesting to put the match into some sort of historical context.

Both Cardiff City and Swansea City have played top flight football, however none of the matches between the sides have taken place there. The clubs have met many times in the second flight, however none of them have seen the two sides in such a high (joint) position. The following table shows the top ten derbies (by joint position at the time of the match) in history:

Match Result	CCFC Pos	SCFC Pos
03/04/2010 - Cardiff 2 Swansea 1	3	7
07/11/1959 - Cardiff 2 Swansea 1	1	10
26/03/1960 - Swansea 3 Cardiff 3	2	12
07/11/2009 - Swansea 3 Cardiff 2	3	12
27/12/1980 - Cardiff 3 Swansea 3	14	2
07/03/1959 - Cardiff 0 Swansea 1	8	12
15/04/1959 - Swansea 1 Cardiff 3	8	12
04/09/1962 - Swansea 2 Cardiff 1	15	5
24/12/1949 - Swansea 5 Cardiff 1	12	9
18/04/1981 - Swansea 1 Cardiff 1	16	5

I think a good case can be made that when Cardiff City (1st) and Swansea City (3rd) take the field on Sunday you will be watching the "highest quality" South Wales derby league match of all time. If the two sides keep it up then it's not beyond the realms of possibility that they could be meeting in the Premier League next season.

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