Cardiff manager Omer Riza was comforted by the reaction to his father’s death in the build-up to masterminding South Wales derby success over Swansea, his assistant Tom Ramasut has said.
Riza’s father Josh died on Thursday with the Bluebirds boss twice travelling to London in between preparing for a game that Cardiff won 3-0 – their biggest derby league win for nearly 60 years.
“It’s been an increasingly difficult week,” said Ramasut, who did post-match media duties after Riza was sent off in stoppage time for tangling on the touchline with Swansea midfielder Goncalo Franco.
“Omer drove back home on Wednesday to spend some time with his father.
“He took training on Thursday, did the (pre-match) media, signed Yousef (Salech), and drove back home to spend the last moments with his father. He then drove back down and prepared for the game on Friday.
“What’s been such a warming feeling is the support he’s had from the players and staff – the togetherness we’ve shown – and he’s taken a lot of comfort from that.”
Cardiff had won only one of their previous derby meetings with Swansea, but dominated this contest in the Welsh capital almost from start to finish.
Callum Robinson rewarded their superiority at the start of the second half with two goals in the space of four minutes.
Dimitrios Goutas’ header midway through the second period secured Cardiff’s biggest league victory over their arch-rivals since a 5-0 rout at their former Ninian Park home in April 1965.
Ramasut said: “We talked about it as players and staff and how we’d built a resilience, we’ve seen that over the last six games unbeaten.
“There are players there who have played many derbies now and know what it means for the fans, the club, the whole city. They knew there was that motivation.”
Swansea have now lost four consecutive away games and boss Luke Williams criticised their attitude in a contest that became fractious in the closing stages.
As well as Riza’s red card players from both camps had to be separated at the final whistle, an ugly melee that could well interest the Football Association’s disciplinary committee.
Williams said: “From our point of view it’s pathetic. If we think that in any way that’s going to in some way take attention away from a shoddy performance, we’re very much mistaken.
“The time for fighting was on the pitch, fighting for the ball, fighting for our fans to make one more run forward, make one more tackle, jump for one more header.
“To try to make more one more action to the box, to try to make one more recovery run when your legs have gone.
“That’s fighting, not scrapping on the pitch and swearing and pushing.”
