Ollie Tanner inspires Cardiff to end Swansea’s stranglehold in South Wales derby

Posted Sunday, September 17, 2023 by PA

Cardiff ended their South Wales derby losing streak with a 2-0 Sky Bet Championship win over Swansea.

Ollie Tanner wrote his name into the history of the fixture just seconds after coming on as a 70th-minute substitute with his first Cardiff goal and then won the penalty which Aaron Ramsey converted.

The 21-year-old winger was signed from Isthmian League side Lewes in July 2022 and spent the second half of last season on loan at York, but it was his name that reverberated around the Cardiff City Stadium as Swansea were finally sunk on derby day.

Swansea had won the four previous meetings between the bitter rivals and completed the first league derby ‘doubles’ into the bargain.

But those victories came under the management of Russell Martin and new boss Michael Duff had blotted his copybook by downplaying the derby before the international break.

Duff had backtracked from those comments two days before the trip east on the M4, but a first win of his reign was necessary to lift Swansea out of the relegation zone.

Cardiff had also made an indifferent start under new manager Erol Bulut with only one win in five matches, but performances on the whole had been encouraging with the Bluebirds punished by their failure to close out games.

Duff handed debuts to deadline-day signings Jamal Lowe – back for a second stint at the club and scorer of a derby double in December 2020 – Josh Tymon and Kristian Pedersen, but suffered a blow when the experienced Joe Allen was injured in the warm-up and withdrew.

Cardiff forced the early pace with a safely-gathered Mark McGuinness header and Carl Rushworth pushing out a vicious Jamilu Collins cross, which Ike Ugbo was unable to profit from at the far post.

The best chance of a frenetic first period high on endeavour but shot on quality came in the third minute of stoppage time.

Ramsey picked out Ugbo, who showed good strength to fend off Nathan Wood. Ugbo’s header fell into the path of Yakou Meite, but his powerful snapshot was well saved by Rushworth.

Meite tested Rushworth again within seconds of the restart with a ferocious 25-yard attempt that swerved in the air, and their personal contest continued as the Swansea goalkeeper clung on to another attempt from the Ivory Coast international.

Jay Fulton was booked for a lunge on Manolis Siopis as tempers began to rise and Tymon was also spoken to by referee Sam Barrott after clattering into Ramsey.

Duff replaced Lowe and Yates with Jamie Paterson and Josh Ginnelly after 63 minutes to try and inject some life into the Swansea attack.

The pair instantly combined to good effect as Tymon fired over, but Swansea did not muster a shot on target until the 90th minute.

Cardiff carried the greater threat as Ugbo missed Ramsey’s cross and Fulton cleared Karlan Grant’s effort off the line before Tanner struck.

Tanner took possession with his first touch and then cut inside Tymon to unleash an unstoppable shot into the far corner of Rushworth’s net.

Pedersen then dragged Tanner to the ground four minutes from time and Ramsey, as he had done for Wales on Monday, stroked home the spot-kick to start the Cardiff celebrations.