Cardiff City one-upped Swansea City in perfect way - it was a blissful betrayal | OneFootball

Cardiff City won the Premier League's first-ever South Wales Derby contest with a famous victory over arch-rivals Swansea City

The 2013/14 campaign marked Cardiff City's first-ever foray into the Premier League, and it's perhaps better-remembered for controversies away from the pitch for those in the Welsh capital, although there were certain high points amid the Bluebirds' eventual relegation.

Cardiff romped to the Championship title in 2013, finishing the season with an eight-point margin over second-placed Hull City.

Following a number of well-documented failed promotion attempts, having lost out in the play-offs in each of the previous three campaigns - including a devastating defeat in the 2010 final against Blackpool - Cardiff finally put it right to book their ticket to English football's top-flight for the first time since 1962.

However, the Bluebirds' historic, first-ever Premier League promotion was already tainted, in the eyes of many supporters, by the fact that it was achieved amid the club's hugely-controversial rebrand from blue to red under Vincent Tan, which saw both the home colours and the badge changed in a fruitless effort to transform City's commercial reach and exposure.

Protests were routinely staged, and the detached mood filtered around Wales' capital city in spite of promotion. The season would, of course, end in disaster, and a relatively strong start to the season ultimately headed south as Cardiff finished rock bottom of the top-flight, having made a number of disastrous signings, such as Andreas Cornelius and Wilfried Zaha, while parting ways with manager Malky Mackay before appointing Ole Gunnar Solskjær.

Silver linings were few and far between, then, although one notable high point was Cardiff's 1-0 victory over bitter rivals Swansea City in the South Wales Derby — and it had an incredibly spicy twist...

Cardiff City one-upped Swansea City with Steven Caulker heroics

By the time Cardiff rocked up to the Premier League, Swansea had already been plying their trade there for two seasons after becoming the first Welsh team to earn promotion to the top-flight since its 1992 rebrand by defeating Reading in the 2011 play-off final.

Much to Cardiff's dissatisfaction, having squandered no shortage of opportunities to seal promotion themselves in years gone by, Swansea were strutting their stuff, too. The Swans had earned the famous 'Swansealona' nametag for their easy-on-the-eye brand of possession-based football and won the 2013 EFL Cup, two years on from Cardiff's run to the final against Liverpool, booking their place in the 2013/24 UEFA Europa League.

But, by the time that the Premier League's first edition of the South Wales Derby came along in October, Swansea were no match for the Bluebirds.

Cardiff would bide their time against Swansea's relentless pass-and-control-based approach before breaking the deadlock through defender Steven Caulker, whose header powered past Michel Vorm just after the hour mark.

With Vorm then dismissed late in the day, Cardiff held out for all three points and a famous victory, one which can't be unwritten despite the differing directions of travel of the two Welsh sides from there on in.

Caulker, who joined during the summer of 2013 from Tottenham Hotspur, made himself an instant hero in this corner of South Wales.

His goal may have made history, but it meant even more considering that, just two years prior, he had been on loan at Swansea, recording 26 top-flight appearances following a previous loan spell with another old enemy of Cardiff's in Severnside rivals Bristol City.

The Severnside divide has always been a rather well-trodden path, but few have ever dared to cross the South Wales divide. Caulker did exactly that, and became a hero on one side of it while becoming, for some time, the ultimate enemy on the other side, with his act of what one could call blissful betrayal endearing the one-time England international to the Cardiff faithful.

Swansea would, of course, exact some form of revenge by thrashing a now-dysfunctional Cardiff side 3-0 in the reversal at the then-named Liberty Stadium, but it was the Bluebirds who won the first-ever Premier League edition of domestic Welsh football's premiere fixture courtesy of Caulker's willingness to cross the line.

Steven Caulker had an eventful career after Cardiff City spell

Caulker emerged out of the mess that was Cardiff's maiden Premier League campaign with credit in the bank, having made a positive individual impression with five goals from 38 top-flight outings.

That was enough to keep the imposing central defender in the Premier League when newly-promoted QPR came calling, but his spell with the Bluebirds was about as good as it ever got and that fateful move to Loftus Road kick-started a rather drastic career slump.

Caulker suffered his second successive relegation out of the top-flight with the Hoops, though, once again, he swiftly returned.

The Spurs academy product joined Southampton on a season-long loan but struggled for regular game-time, which remained the case when he made a bizarre mid-campaign switch to Liverpool before returning to make just 18 appearances for QPR in the next year-and-a-half.

Caulker would then venture around the globe, taking in spells with Dundee FC, Alanyaspor, Fenerbache, Gaziantep, Fatih Karagumruk, FC Malaga City, Keciorengucu and Icelandic outfit Stjarnan - with a brief return to English football with Wigan Athletic in 2023 sandwiched inbetween - while also pledging his international allegiances to Sierra Leone, for whom he earned 14 caps.

His career ultimately proved a nomadic one following such strong early promise, though it's worth noting that Caulker bravely battled through off-field problems, suffering and then beating addictions to both alcohol and gambling.

Caulker officially hung up his boots recently, confirming his retirement from the game on December 19 in a move that brings one of English football's most turbulent and unusual careers to an end, and supporters of all his 17 clubs - not least those on either side of the South Wales divide - will have different feelings on the ex-defender.