Cardiff City vs Swansea City South Wales derby to be Saturday 3pm kick-off for first time in decades

Cardiff City's return South Wales derby clash with arch-rivals Swansea City will go ahead with a traditional Saturday 3pm kick-off, the first time that has happened in decades.

In fact, you have to go back well into the last century for the last time the two teams locked horns at such a prime Saturday afternoon time.

The Bluebirds versus Swans has tended to be chosen by Sky Sports for coverage, which has often meant the fixture being moved to a Sunday with a much earlier kick-off time.

When it has remained as a Saturday match, again the kick-off time has been altered.

However, on this occasion, barring an 11th-hour change, the game between Steve Morison's Bluebirds and Russell Martin's Swans will be played out on Saturday, April 2 at 3pm, as per the Football League fixture list.

Sky have chosen Hull v Huddersfield and Blackpool v Nottingham Forest as their Championship matches that weekend, with nothing riding on the South Wales derby in terms of promotion or relegation.

South Wales Police have confirmed the match will remain as it is.

However, police stress it will be a bubble match, as per normal. That means travelling Swans fans will require a voucher for ticket exchange on official coaches which will provide transport to Cardiff City Stadium.

The coaches, laid on in Swansea, will be bussed in and out of the venue.

The decision to let the fixture go ahead with a Saturday mid-afternoon kick-off may raise eyebrows in some quarters, but the bubble element for fans has worked slickly in recent years and there has been little in the way of the kind of the trouble we previously associated with this fixture.

Swansea won the first derby earlier this season in what was a noon Sunday kick-off.

That was in line with more recent