Planet Swans ArchivesIn a vain attempt to try and remember most of the day it was decided to refrain from alcohol consumption until we reached Paddington. A great idea which soon went out of the window as the train crawled past Morfa stadium!
It soon became apparent that the day was not going to go as planned with the announcement that we were to be shipped by bus from Swindon to London due to a fatality on the line. After a few minutes wandering around Swindon station, Great Western trains decided that they’d rather have those “Pesky Jacks” on the train where they could keep an eye on them and once again we were moving.
Paddington station at 12pm and it was time to line the stomach ahead of the rest of the days drinking (many thanks to Burger King for their double cheeseburger!) and then it was off into the “Big Smoke” to find Shane (swansealoyal) after locating the ever elusive man in Tottenham Court rd there was just enough time to fit in a few beverages with a few of the London Jacks before we made our journey out to the land of jellied eels.
On arrival at Brisbane rd/Matchroom stadium (delete where appropriate) it was heartening to find over 500 like minded Jacks had also made the journey, along with about 70 very noisy Belgians! After being disappointed not to be 3-0 up at half-time, we watched in horror as the Swans pushed the button clearly marked “self-destruct” giving away two soft goals in the space of six minutes. Luckily Mumford had other ideas and cheered up a fellow Llanelli p shead by equalising with a sweet volley with only 8 mins to go. Even a freak hail storm at the end of the game couldn’t dampen our spirits and we headed off back to Paddington to have a few drinks before our 8pm train.
Most of the return journey remains a blur, but I’m sure it included running up and down the train with paper bags on our heads and baiting the “glory-hunting” Spurs fans who all came from Wales and seemed to think it was pointless supporting your local side (shame on you lads!!!)
For those interested, pictures of the above events can be found at this link.
Tuesday night saw the return of “Jan the man” to the Vetch, bringing with him his play-off chasing Kidderminster team. Molby received a very warm welcome and by the way, contrary to popular belief, I’m told that the lack of pies at half-time had absolutely nothing to do with the big man’s return! Jan has got his Kiddie side playing some lovely football and at half-time we were lucky to still be in the game. As the second half wore on it was clear that man of the match Chris Todd was on a mission to stop the Kiddie attack single handed and after Sharpe put us in front, our first 3 points of the year were never in doubt, mainly due to the fact that the Kidderminster strikers couldn’t hit a cow’s a e with a banjo!!!.
Four points from two games and the week was going pretty well as we boarded the train for scumville on Wednesday afternoon. A game against one of the World Cup favourites in front of a capacity Millennium Stadium crowd was a mouth-watering prospect. After a little bit of “mouth-watering” of our own in the various local hostelries, we made our way through the “blue shirted” hordes to the home of Welsh football. No matter how many times I visit the Millennium Stadium, the place always takes my breath away and with the roof closed, the place seemed even more special. Something that wasn’t “special” on Wednesday night was the total lack of passion from the majority of the Welsh “fans” present. It became pretty obvious that around 64,000 of the 65,000 crowd were more used to seeing their football on Sky Sports from their armchairs and this seemed to confuse them completely. The fact that we were beating one of the best teams in the world 1-0 seemed lost on 99% of the BT East Stand as just three of us tried to get around 20,000 people singing!!! As usual we had to endure the usual C ff City bias throughout the game (don’t even get me started on the half-time announcer!) and even though Argentina managed to get an equaliser, It was still one of the best Welsh performances in recent years and something to fill the Welsh heart with pride. It’s just a shame that the majority of the crowd didn’t want to share in that pride and passion.
It’s become pretty obvious to me that the Premiership “disease” has finally spread to the Millennium Stadium and what should be a fearsome stadium, boiling over with Welsh pride and passion has become about as passionate as an “executive box” in Old Trafford, Prawn sandwich anyone???
Friday evening arrived and it was time to experience some real football passion again with Southend’s visit to the Vetch. Once again the attendance was poor, but the 3,500 die hard Jacks were rewarded with a great Swansea performance from a team brimming with confidence and self-belief. With the North Bank “choir” in full voice the Swans got off to a great start with Todd opening the scoring with just a minute on the clock. Southend tried desperately to spoil the party by equalising shortly afterwards, but another goal from Toddy and a superb strike from Sidibe put the Swans out of reach. The obligatory late scare came when Southend pulled it back to 3-2 at the end but it was only to be a consolation goal as the ref blew for full time to end a brilliant week for the Jacks.
Off the field this week, we finally got the announcement of the new board of directors and its great to finally have some stability behind the scenes at the Vetch, well done Mr Nurse and Co and particularly good to see Dave Morgan and Leigh Dineen on the board. Leigh will have to buy a nice long coat to wear in the director’s box now, I’m sure that Dave Morgan will let him know where to get one!!!
Good to see the “Striker” scheme up and running again and with some decent organisation in place, it’ll be nice to see some local winners for a change!
So all in all, a pretty good week to be a Swans fan. Seven points from three games which has now surely put to rest all the relegation scaremongering, topped off nicely by the doctors finally switching off the “sleeping giants” life support yesterday!!! Quite amusing to see the rats deserting the sinking ship this morning (bye bye Corky!!!).
Shrewsbury are in 7th place on 51 points, only 12 points ahead of us….playoffs anyone???
So until next week, have a good one and get yourselves down the Vetch on Tuesday night for the FAW Cup semi-final against Barry Town, remember, it could be C ff in the final!!!
JACKARMY!!!
