Coronavirus: Devoted Cardiff and Swansea fans staying home

Dan Clarke says he's now fairly relaxed about missing the game

The last competitive Cardiff City game Dan Clarke missed was almost 17 years ago.

It was August 2003 and Dan went to a wedding, meaning he couldn't go to see Walsall away. Football fans remember these details.

This week, however, he will have to miss out again. Thousands of diehards like him are in the same boat: football is back, but supporters are barred from stadiums because of the coronavirus pandemic.

So they can't cheer on their team in the flesh. TV, radio and the internet are the only socially distant options for supporters who normally devote much of their lives and income to travelling up and down the country to watch their clubs.

Cardiff will host Leeds - but this time with the fans missing

Cardiff City, in ninth position and still hoping to make the Championship play-offs, will host league leaders Leeds United on Sunday.

Normally, Dan would have been at the Cardiff City Stadium with tens of thousands of other committed fans from south Wales.

As will thousands of others who would normally have made the long journey from Yorkshire hoping for a long-waited return to the Premier League for Leeds - a mission which has been on hold for almost four months.

He admits, however, that he has been fairly relaxed about not being able to go this game.

"I can't do anything about this," he said. "I'm surprised at how mellow I've been. It's just very strange."

Clare Lewis, an equally devoted supporter of Cardiff's closest Welsh rivals, Swansea City, will also have to make do with the TV. Normally, she would have travelled to Middlesbrough on Saturday for the Swans' first game since early March.

She first went to see Swansea in their last game of the season in 1984, was hooked, and has missed only about 15 matches home and away since. But this Saturday's absence is, of course, unavoidable.

A trip to Middlesbrough would normally have meant a 680 mile (1,100km) round trip for Clare, who lives in Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, and helps run the fan coaches to away games.

"It means the world to me because I'm helping people," she said. "It's like one big happy family. I haven't missed the football as much - it's the people."

Clare with defender Ben Wilmot

Clare believes that the rest of the season should have been cancelled for safety reasons.

But she adds: "If it means Swansea City getting into the play-offs and getting further well, all well and good, as long as the players and staff at every single football club keep themselves safe."

Normal pre-match rituals are also currently denied to football fans

Meanwhile, Dan admits it can be difficult to fit football into his life.

"My fiancé is as good as gold," he said. "She comes to a lot of games. But she won't do Carlisle away on a Tuesday night, for example.

"It's challenging managing work, holidays generally. Football is not the be all and end all for her. For example, I always book the flight to go away in May - the day after whatever's latest - the FA Cup final or the Championship play-off final.

"We have to plan - I've missed weddings, birthdays. But people who I live life with know the score. "

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He first went to see Cardiff when he was about 11, and since that wedding in August 2003, reckons he has been to every league and cup match since.

"The first 10 years, I would probably say there were friendlies as well - Canada, America, Portugal, Spain. But I still try to go to friendlies."

Asked how much he has spent following the club, he laughs: "Enough to buy a house".

His highlight of all these years has been the 2017/18 promotion season to the Premier League under then manager Neil Warnock. He puts this down to being underdogs throughout.

He struggles, however, when asked about his worst memory.

"I kind of always go, well I'm going to the next one anyway, so let's get on with it. I'm relatively level-headed, so if things start dipping and I got wound up I probably wouldn't be able to carry on like I do. "

Dan will settle down for Sunday's game in the unusual position of being at home : "I'm not convinced I'll enjoy it, but yeah, I'll watch it," he said.

"I'll find it very strange. But I'm not going to not watch it."

Vince Alm, of Cardiff City Supporters' Club, said the last match he was forced to miss and watch on TV was nearly 25 years ago.

"I looked it up - it was in 1995/96 season, the Auto Windscreens with Gillingham. It was at home but back in those days I was playing drums in a band so I was up country and couldn't get to the game, midweek. We won 3-2, so hopefully that continues."