Newport County have the worst discipline of all professional football clubs in South Wales, data compiled by The Cardiffian shows.
The statistics also show a high proportion of red and yellow cards have been issued in the final 15 minutes of Cardiff City, Swansea City and Newport County’s league games this season.
Newport have picked up 1.88 cards per game on average in Football League Two this season. So far this season, they have been issued 59 yellow cards and four red cards.
Nearly one third of all Newport’s cards this season have been issued from the 75th minute of games. Swansea have also seen most of their cards given to their players in the latter stages of games.
While Justin Edinburgh’s side have the worst discipline in South Wales, Cardiff City boast the best record in the region.
Cardiff have only been shown 1.26 cards on average in each of their league matches this campaign. They have not been given a red card in the league all season.
Tim Lane, media officer for Newport County, said: “We appealed against two of our red cards this season. The other two were punished internally.”
“Each caution and red card has its disciplinary fee across the board in the Football League. I actually think we are in the middle bracket in terms of discipline in our league.”
Swansea City media manager John Wilsher attributed the fact The Swans’s relatively low cards per game rate of 1.65 to the way Swansea retain possession for long periods of games.
He said: “The fact that we retain a lot of possession helps ourselves. We obviously cannot commit any fouls really if we have the ball.
“It has not ever been said that we [Swansea] are a side that commit a lot of fouls or are normally seen as a side that commits a lot of foul play. Most bookings that we have picked up are for minor offences.”
Despite having the best disciplinary record, Cardiff could not be reached for comment.
*All data collated from the start of 2013/14 season to 20 March 2014.
