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| Twelve months ago changes were afoot at the Vetch. John Hollins was still in charge but had just a week left in his job – Mike Lewis was still in charge and then he delivered us Tony Petty. But what was happening was the fans were uniting. They had one common interest and that was that Swansea City survived. And for once, we saw all people fighting the same corner – all on one side. And we won, Hollins, Petty and finally Lewis departed these shores and most thought that this season we could concentrate fully on the football. |
| And even during the childish spats on the Message Board here during the summer after the FAW Final at least we were talking football. Incredible work was done by members of this site and sleepinggiant.com during the summer months to repair some of the damage between two sets of supporters and at last it appeared that Swansea City supporters were ready to move forward as a community. |
| And then the season started. Performances on the pitch were not good. Games were lost when we thought we should have won (on paper anyway!) and fans get bored. Two thousand down on the crowd in just three games and people look for targets. But what did we find this year? We had no Petty or Lewis or Hollins to have a pop at so some started on Nick Cusack but these voices seemed drained by those that were ready to give Cusack a choice so that dies down a little bit so who else can be targeted? |
| Well lets start thinking of the people who are semi-associated with the football club to start with. The webmasters. With respect to the likes of Owain Johns and Nigel Saunders, Swansea City has two main unofficial web-sites. You are reading one of them and we have our friends over at scfc.co.uk. All of a sudden the theme seemed to be ‘pick on the web-sites’ I make no bones that I get paid by Rivals.net to maintain this web-site – Dai Smith (and Gary Martin before him) do scfc.co.uk for free. Either way what does it matter. Both sites provide information that is not readily accesible elsewhere. Ask people like Nick Rees, Jannik Hansen or Tony Santore (and a host of other people) where they get their information from and most will say these two sites. So why are we picking on them? |
| This site all of a sudden has become the enemy of people because they think it’s official. It’s not but it has a column on the official site so it must be official. Swansea City do not and will never control the content of this site. But let’s have a dig anyway. But because people have had a dig we then get a dig back. It must be Gary Martin who is having the dig? Why? Tit for tat? Or boredom? Either way it’s pointless and takes the emphasis away from what both sites try to achieve – and that is support for Swansea City. |
| But the two sites are not alone. The official site or "Swans World" or "Anyteam World" as it seems known comes in for a battering as well. From the outset, I will state I have no problem with this service. I will confess to not being signed up to it but I have no issue. It is £30 per year to get goal highlights from EVERY Swans game and also provides interviews and whatever else that the fan who wants to subscribe is interested in. For sure this was free last season but this is 2002, you want quality coverage you pay for it. So why keep moaning about it? |
| I have a belief. It is my belief that old habits die hard. As Swansea fans, we have had plenty to have a pop at in the past. Right from the moment that Silver Shield arrived and cost us the services of Jan Molby, very little has gone right. Owner after owner has only been interested in one thing. Football has been of a low standard and results all to often have gone the wrong way. But all of a sudden we find ourselves with no real enemies. Not of the likes of Tony Petty or Mike Lewis so we look for other targets. And it wastes energy. |
| Now more than ever Nick Cusack and his team need our support not to have us fighting between ourselves. League points are important and if we put our energy into helping the team get these rather than wasting it on pointless arguments wouldn’t we all benefit. |
| How about this for a slightly different idea? On Saturday Hartlepool visit the Vetch. It’s now Wednesday evening. Between now and then we could talk about football? When I took over this site in July 2001, I did so because of the football. I feel proud that we played our part in ousting the club of it’s evil but one thing would make me happy and thats to start winning football matches again. |
| So for now let’s concentrate on helping Nick and his team get it right on the pitch and leave the pointless arguments out of it? |
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