Russell Martin has revealed he was sent a good luck message by Connor Roberts ahead of Swansea City's trip to Cardiff City.
The Swans are bidding to become the first ever side to do the double in the South Wales derby this weekend having won the reverse fixture 3-0 in October. Ahead of the game, Cardiff boss Steve Morison revealed Gareth Bale urged the Bluebirds to do their best to take all three points so he could wind-up Wales team-mate Roberts.
"I saw him every day he was here in Wales camp, I said 'hello' to him every day, all he said to me was ‘Make sure you beat Swansea!’, that's the only comment he made to me," said Morison.
Read more: Every word from Russell Martin's Cardiff City v Swansea City press conference
And moments before he held his pre-match press conference at Fairwood, Martin received a text from Welshman and boyhood Swan Roberts.
"I’ve just had a text just before Connor saying he’s thinking of us and he hopes we win," revealed the head coach. "I went to the game [Wales v Austria] and saw a couple of Swansea supporters and everyone sent their best wishes. It’s a big game for people from both camps."
Bookmakers and several pundits have Morison's side as the slight favourites going into Saturday's game at Cardiff City Stadium. And while the Bluebirds have improved under their current coaching staff, Martin admits there's little to choose between the two sides at present.
"They made some brilliant signings in January in terms of improving their squad," added Martin. "They’ve added athleticism and players back from loans who have really helped them.
"There’s a little bit of a myth about their form and our form. Over 10 games they have one more point than us, but they’ve picked up a lot under Steve.
"There’s very little between the two teams in the last 10 games, nothing between the two teams in the last six games. They’ve improved in terms of players, and under Steve, he’s found a way to get them going and get everyone to pull in one direction."
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Swansea have no injury concerns ahead of the game in the capital. Flynn Downes and Jamie Paterson - who both missed the 0-0 draw against Birmingham City before the international break - are in line to start against the Bluebirds.
"Everyone’s fit. Everyone’s come back really well. We’ve had some really important time on the training pitch which has been nice," added Martin.
"Pato has been fine, he’s trained all week. They’ve both [Paterson and Downes] had a little bit of time off to recover. They’ll both be ready for tomorrow. They’re two hugely important players for us. It’ll be really nice to have them back. We missed both of them in the last game."
Kick-off in Cardiff is at 3pm on Saturday.
