Dave Jones revealed that his wife Ann had undergone surgery this week, and said: "She must have burst every stitch watching the match!"

The Bluebirds manager added: "She even wanted to come and watch today, but I don't think it would have done her any good. The result will be a tonic for her."

Two-goal Michael Chopra snatched victory in a heart-stopping finish to give Dave his first derby victory over Swansea, and the gaffer said: "People say I play down derby matches, but we didn't do anything different today. I can only do my best.

"We've had tough games against Swansea. They're a good side, a decent side. We caught Paulo out a bit with our formation because they caused us problems in the past.

"We were angry with ourselves when they went ahead because we had just had 20 or 25 minutes of pressure on them. Then we conceded from a corner and we've got to do better.

"We showed great character to go up the other end and score. David made up for his mistake with the corner with a great save.

"Paulo had a few more days rest to give his players because we had a game on Tuesday, and I was worried about that. But there is great character and spirit in this camp, and we have shown that over the past few weeks."

Turning to goal hero Chops, Dave said: "Sometimes he creates for others and makes things happen for others, just as Jay does. Chops will be pleased and happy but it wasn't just his goals, he had a job to do today, the same as Ross.

"I was getting fed up of people telling me that nobody has ever lost two Welsh derby matches in a season, and a win today was important for our fans at our new ground. There was a fantastic atmosphere on Tuesday against Leicester and this surpassed that today. It was different class. That's derby atmosphere for you.

"I'm off for a drink with Paulo now. I've got great respect for him, and there were two good teams out there today.

"As far as the play-offs are concerned, we need to get more points - we're not there yet. I made a decision at the start of the season that after missing out by one goal last time round we were going to go for all-out attack and score as many as we could, and that's what our players have done.

"It was great to see Joe Ledley back today but there is such character in the squad that even Huds offered to go on the bench because he knew we were struggling and we didn't know whether Anthony or Darcy could play."