This, however, was far less painful. When Middlesbrough won comfortably at the Liberty for our first home league match of the season, we looked a shadow of the Martinez side from last season. Not so at Newcastle. What pleased me about the performance is that despite conceding 3 goals so early in the game, we were never prepared to compromise our meticulous approach. Pass, pass, pass.

For me, a football team’s style of play will always be more important than their results. When I think of the World Cup in 2006, the Italians may have won the tournament based on a fantastic defence and quick counter-attacking, but it is the under-achieving Argentians that caught my eye, particularly that Cambiasso goal against the Serbs in the group stage. The 1974 Holland team will always be held in greater esteem than their West German counterparts. It’s silky Arsenal over solid Chelsea, Last season’s West Brom over last season’s Stoke and continental Swansea over hoofball Cardiff.

When Huw Jenkins appointed Sousa last season, I was delighted. Not because I knew that Sousa was a great manager, but because I knew he’d been chosen with our style of football in mind.

So, not happy about the result, but far happier than if we’d compromised ourselves by thumping the ball forward and hoping to snag a point.

No outstanding candidates this week, but Benitez gets the nod. Despite winning two games this week, Liverpool still look bloody awful. They were shaky against the mighty Debrecen and outplayed by their Merseyside neighbours. He would, of course, claim that he is a relative pauper in the transfer market compared to other managers, but a quick look at the figures reveals that to be bullshit.

Surely no amount of belligerence or manipulation of the club’s supporters can save him, come the end of the season. Benitez, you are my dickead of the week.

A big one for us. Can it really be only 5 years ago that we were in the bottom tier, going to places like Kidderminster, Lincoln and Macclesfield? Now we’re playing the top team in the Championship in front of a crowd likely to top 40,000.

And to top that off, we can go up there with a decent level of optimism to come back with something. They’ve got a number of Premiership quality players; Nolan and Gutierrez are far better than this league and Ameobi, Smith, Guthrie, Harper, Enrique and Taylor, are all capable at that level. But I look at a few of our players and am confident they could also make that step up.

Hopefully Cotterill will make an appearance and I’m sure he’ll be trying to impress if he does.

We’ve sold our away allocation and will make plenty of noise. I’m going for a 1-1 draw on this one – Carroll for them and Beattie to get another away goal for us.

Prediction 1-1

Other games of interest

Cardiff v Ipswich

Brings back some great memories from the last time Roy Keane’s ipswich came to Cardiff. Oh, how I laughed at the great Ninian Park send-off from last season. Here’s hoping Ipswich can do it again in Legoland.

Prediction 2-2.

Everton v Liverpool

The first instalment of Sky Sports’ Super Smashing Sexual Climax Sunday should be a good ‘un. Two shite teams, most of the best players injured, should hopefully lead to a nasty scrappy derby.

Prediction 1-0
Sendings-off 1-2

Arsenal v Chelsea

Hard to see the Premiership Swans stopping Chelsea. With Van Persie definitely out and maybe Gallas to join him, I’ll go for an away win.

Prediction 1-2

To kick off an ongoing series, there can be only one winner. You were shit against us, your wind-ups didn’t work and you showed yourself up as a deluded tool on the Football League Show (“We defended really well for long periods. They never really hurt us, other than the two chances”).

You sir, are a dickhead.

Not a bit of it.

I’m struggling to remember the last time we dominated so comprehensively. 4-1 against Preston last season springs to mind, but perhaps that’s just the scoreline misleading me. I can’t decide whether we were brilliant or Derby were absolutely terrible. Both, probably.

Martinez spoke a lot last season about the ‘pass-count’, but I would be surprised if Sousa’s Swansea hadn’t surpassed Martinez’s record on that front on Friday. The game followed a similar pattern throughout. Knock the ball towards one wing, look for an opening, knock it back to one of our back three (Tate, Williams and a deep-lying Britton) and sweep it towards the other wing to see if we can get some joy. The ultra-defensive Derby had parked the bus from the start, which didn’t make it easy, but there was always someone making themselves available and we seemed to be in possession for most of the game.

Despite the 1-0 scoreline, we actually created a lot of chances and, but for Bywater, we’d have improved our goals scored column by some distance. Everybody in this team knows their job and is performing it very well. Particularly impressive, for the third game running, was Bessone. He’s actually out-performing Rangel at the moment, which is something I never expected to see.

Have to mention the attendance. It was good to see a full-to-brim Liberty, lets hope that continues. Derby’s support was as shit as their team.

Onwards and upwards now. A real test to see how far we’ve come away at Newcastle next Saturday.

Walter.

Not because I feel I have anything particularly special or important to say.
Not because I want to be a big contrarian show-off.
Not even because my football team have just reached their highest point in the football league structure for 26 years (ok, partly because of that).

No, the reason is that I am sat here in my dressing gown at 11:30 on a Monday morning – an indicator that I have a lot of time on my hands.

So, I’m gonna write down some thoughts on the beautiful game (it deserves that title down the Liberty Stadium), with a heavy Swansea City bias. I might include some other bits and bobs if I feel like it. 

Have a read, comment if you like.

Walter