With Palace leading 1-0 on aggregate before their trip to the Cardiff City Stadium, Freedman was reported as saying that he questioned the Welsh club’s ability to cope with the pressure of big games and accordingly irked the opposition’s boss, Malky Mackay. Coming off the back of a run of games that had seen Palace fail to win in the Championship for a month, and accusing Cardiff of failing to profit from previous opportunities to win trophies when Mackay had not been in charge, smacked of misplaced confidence and backfired when the Bluebirds clipped the Eagles’ wings and secured their place at Wembley.
In Swindon’s corner, Di Canio had been quoted as stating that his team would win the league easily in the aftermath of their recent win against Macclesfield in an entertaining and passionate post-match interview that is still available to watch on the BBC Sport website. For those who remember Di Canio’s performances as a player in the Premier League the exchange typified his uniquely impulsive and unpredictable character that simultaneously infuriated and delighted football fans when he performed for the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and West Ham United.
As such, his comments could have been interpreted as a flag-waving riposte that he would later come to regret such was the evident intensity of feeling the Italian was experiencing at the time of the interview. However, Swindon’s next league game away at Southend yielded a 4-1 victory which meant that Di Canio’s team leapfrogged their hosts into second place, having lost just the once out of their previous eleven League Two outings and goes some way to explaining the Italian’s bullish remarks.
Swindon’s form has flourished in cup competitions too, earning scalps against Wigan Athletic, Colchester United and Huddersfield Town before losing out to Leicester City in the 4th Round of the FA Cup and earning their place at Wembley in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy earlier this week. Prior to the Southern Final versus Barnet that booked their place at England’s premier footballing arena, Di Canio told reporters that Swindon are better than their opponents and reaffirmed his belief that his squad would win the league.
After a tricky opening few months in his first managerial post, it appears that Di Canio is finding his feet and is never far away from producing a colourful quote or two as he is beginning to attract the kind of media attention that lit up his spell as a player in the Premier League. If he can continue to steer Swindon to success then it’s likely he will ruffle a few feathers along the way, a la Mourinho with Chelsea (and albeit in League Two) but, for now, Swindon will be content to float upwardly in the league like a butterfly and grateful that the Italian masterminded the stinging of the Bees.
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