Cardiff Wanderers gearing up for biggest match in history against Swansea

Cardiff Wanderers play arguably the biggest match of their history when Swansea City rolls into town in the FAW Women’s Cup.

Swansea City, who boast a number of Wales internationals such as Emma Beynon, Chloe Chivers, and Katy Hosford, will arrive at Tongwynlais Playing Fields, hoping to avoid an upset against the South Wales Women’s League side.

Hoping to plot their downfall will be manager Chris Hooper, who has prolific striker Jade Croft in his ranks, as well as creative players such as Llywela Edwards and Laura Williams-Ellis.

Ahead of the match, their manager Hooper said: “I am very excited to be leading the team on such a huge occasion, I have coached some big games in women’s football and this is one of them.

“We are a relatively new club and ladies football in Cardiff is going from strength to strength.

“What will make us stand out is that we are a very competitive team playing out of a little village in Tongwynlais.”

There is a worry that this could be a mismatch. Swansea defeated Cardiff’s rivals Coed Duon Women 17-0 in the last round.

It was a result that showed the gulf in class between the two divisions.

Coed Duon took the result positively and aimed to use it as a learning curve to try and aspire to get to the level of Swansea.

For Swansea’s opponents today, they are hoping to be competitive, as well as scoring an unlikely goal against Welsh Women’s football’s best team. 

“They are arguably the best ladies team in Wales.

“Yes they had a huge win last week and fair play to Coed Duon they kept going. 

“For me what I am hoping is for our side to be competitive as much as we can be and also maybe try and score as they don’t concede many.”

Last week’s mismatch was played on an artificial surface, but this week Swansea City will have to play on Tongwynlais Fields, a park pitch maintained by the local council.

Hoping to use that to their advantage, the Wanderers have more experience of playing on the pitch and may tailor their pitch into their favour to get one over their opponents. 

“It is very different to what most tier one sides play on but we are in tier three so the grass might be a bit longer than normal.

“We just want the club to enjoy the ladies football as that is the most important thing to us.”