There's no getting around the fact that Cardiff City's recent South Wales derby record has been woeful.
Indeed, in the last six matches against their arch enemies, Cardiff have managed just one goal and lost five times. Thankfully for City fans, that one goal was Aden Flint's last year and it proved to be the winner down at the Swansea.com Stadium.
But that was an all-too-rare feeling of euphoria for fans from Wales' capital city, with Swansea having dominated this fixture to such an extent that the trepidation and dread is already coursing through many Bluebirds supporters veins days out from Sunday's encounter.
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Last season there was almost a feeling of inevitability ahead of these derby fixtures. The same players, playing in the same laboured system, getting zipped off the park by a fleetness of passing and thought from Swansea, who completed the first-ever league double against Cardiff.
Cardiff, though, hit the reset button in the summer transfer window. The playing squad and its staff are utterly unrecognisable from last term and that, at least, is a positive from their point of view. There are very few remaining players who are jaded by the batterings of recent years gone by, with the vast majority of the squad free from the baggage the last incarnation of City players had to carry going into these meetings.
Whether it was the psyche, the tactics, the players or a mixture of it all, Swansea have had the edge over Cardiff for too long now and supporters are rightly wanting their team to stand up to the challenge far better this time than they have done of late.
Does the influx of 17 new players changed that at all? Of course it will have an effect. But the real litmus test for this new-look Bluebirds team, with a different style of play and more mobile players, to see if anything has really changed, on a deeper level, will be this Sunday's clash with Swansea.
The Bluebirds go into the match on the back of two successive defeats. Things were beginning to look up when Mark Hudson recorded back-to-back wins against Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic, but this league has a way of making you crash back down to earth. Suddenly, Cardiff are staring at the prospect of three losses on the spin, the last of which would be the worst one of all, against their biggest rivals.
The South Wales derby, rightly or wrongly, goes a long way in affecting supporters' feelings surrounding the squad and particularly the manager. A loss on Sunday and suddenly the mood could turn sour, a complete 180 from what it would have been just a week before, and pressure on Hudson will increase faster than ever.
A win, however, and the previous two defeats against QPR and Coventry City will be forgotten about as quickly as the referee can blow his final whistle. That is the enormity of this fixture.
To his credit, Hudson has not shied away from derby talk. He has not put it on the back burner or sidestepped the questions. He has been consistent in his messaging that he understands the implications Sunday's result will have and knows the supporters need a win.
Just last night, after the humbling 3-0 defeat at Loftus Road, Hudson said: "We will have to recover right and go at Sunday with full heart. It's not a game we've ever looked away from, we are looking forward to it. We have to go there and put a performance together that makes the club proud, makes the fans proud. We know how important it is and we will go and do that."
Swansea are flying at the minute, though, and with Cardiff still muddling their way through the season, trying to find the right blend of players and playing style, they face a stern test in the next instalment of derby action.
Russell Martin's side sit in seventh place, just three points off the top spot, and have won four of their last five matches. People say form goes out the window when it comes to derby day and there is of course some truth in that, but you'd rather be sitting where Swansea are in the table than Cardiff at the minute, if you were a Bluebirds supporter, wouldn't you?
Either way, much has been made of how refreshing this new Cardiff side is, but they still sit 18th in the table and seem to be lacking any sort of consistency or galvanising spirit at the minute. There is nothing like welcoming a new dawn by a derby victory, though, and the effect that could have on this new group could be astronomical, it could be the catalyst to kickstart City's campaign.
Recent form is against Cardiff, recent derby history is against Cardiff, too, but if ever a team needed to put in a performance it is this one and in this game. On paper, at least, there seems to be a group of players who are far better equipped to deal with the threats Swansea pose than in the last few years. And they have an interim manager, who has scored in a South Wales derby lest we forget, who certainly knows what it means to the fans.
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