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Home > Story Index >"Yesterday, All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away" |
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| Certainly not a spectacular result given what happened that season but one that made the second division table look like this. | ||||||||
| English 2nd Division March 17th 1981 | ||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
| 1 | West Ham | 33 | 22 | 7 | 4 | 63 | 26 | 51 |
| 2 | Notts C | 33 | 14 | 13 | 6 | 38 | 32 | 41 |
| 3 | Grimsby Town | 34 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 38 | 28 | 39 |
| 4 | Blackburn Rovers | 33 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 37 | 27 | 39 |
| 5 | Sheffield W | 33 | 15 | 8 | 10 | 43 | 34 | 38 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 34 | 14 | 9 | 11 | 46 | 32 | 37 |
| 7 | SWANSEA CITY | 33 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 49 | 37 | 37 |
| Our football club just 9 games away from the greatest day in it’s history. Nine games of which we won 5, drew 3 and lost just the once. | ||||||||
| Power forward just one year. 20th March 1982. A better result. Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Swansea City. Swansea fans dreaming of league championships and the like as the first division looked like this at 5pm on that day | ||||||||
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English 1st Division March 20th 1982 |
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| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
| 1 | SWANSEA CITY | 30 | 17 | 5 | 8 | 44 | 34 | 56 |
| 2 | Southampton | 32 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 55 | 45 | 55 |
| 3 | Man Utd | 29 | 15 | 8 | 6 | 43 | 22 | 53 |
| 4 | Liverpool | 28 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 52 | 24 | 51 |
| 5 | Ipswich | 28 | 16 | 3 | 9 | 51 | 39 | 51 |
| 6 | Arsenal | 30 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 25 | 21 | 50 |
| 7 | Tottenham | 25 | 15 | 4 | 6 | 45 | 25 | 49 |
| Our football club looking down on the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal with the football season less than two months from it’s close. Bring a tear to your eye – it was a time to be proud to be a Swansea fan – I know for certain that I was. | ||||||||
| And from there we wonder where it all went wrong – how did we possibly get to this position? | ||||||||
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English 3rd Division March 17th 2003 |
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| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
| 18 | Shrewsbury | 34 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 49 | 63 | 39 |
| 19 | Macclesfield | 36 | 9 | 10 | 17 | 43 | 50 | 37 |
| 20 | Bristol R | 36 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 37 | 45 | 37 |
| 21 | Carlisle | 36 | 10 | 7 | 19 | 41 | 61 | 37 |
| 22 | Boston | 36 | 10 | 10 | 16 | 40 | 44 | 36 |
| 23 | Exeter | 37 | 7 | 13 | 17 | 39 | 56 | 34 |
| 24 | SWANSEA CITY | 37 | 8 | 10 | 19 | 33 | 53 | 34 |
| 21 years from the very top to the very foot of the football league. 21 years that has seen two promotions, five relegations, two Wembley appearances, three play-off defeats and an incredible SEVENTEEN managers in the Vetch hot seat (we had just 15 in the previous 69 years) | ||||||||
| This club is now facing the biggest nine games that it has ever faced. Forget matches at Preston in 1981, Huddersfield and Northampton at Wembley, Rotherham in 2000 and countless games alongside these are the most important. Sure if we’d have lost at Preston or Rotherham it would have been sad but at least there was league football to look forward too, mess up in these nine and we’d better get the map out and work out where some of these conference grounds are. | ||||||||
| Without disrespect to some of the sides in the third division table, a club from a city of our size should not be in this position. Macclesfield and Boston fans you may not like this but we should be above you to start with and the rest of them – with a possible exception of Bristol Rovers. These are small towns/cities – Swansea is a big place with a big catchment area we should not have got into this position. | ||||||||
| I have read with interest the articles penned on the two main unofficial sites and agree with both Phil Crocker and Clive Hughes – we have to be behind this team. If you turned the clock back 22 years then you would be behind them without the need to ask. What would we all give for the same nine game finish that we produced back in 1981? | ||||||||
| I’m only 32 (look about 52!) but I have seen some legends in my lifetime play for the Swans and through my writing I have learned about many more. I lost count of the times I have seen us play (does anyone keep a track of these stats???) and the number of times I have been frustrated by someone who I don’t believe it fit to wear the white shirt. But we go back for more because we can’t help ourselves. | ||||||||
| There are players at the club now who maybe are not up to the job but what will I gain by saying that now? All I can do is be there next game as the requests from the above mentioned have already said. And if we fail then we can point fingers as it will make no difference. | ||||||||
| I look again at the league tables that I have printed above and I wonder why it all went wrong and how we could end up in this position at this moment in time. Co-incidentally we beat Preston on May 2 1981, we play Hull 22 years and one day later – a similar happy ending is what we all want. | ||||||||
| I appeal not just to the fans but the players and management to pull behind this club. And that is every fan – stories of vendettas don’t help and bickering amongst individuals doesn’t help – if you are a Swansea fan remember when you sung "Swansea Till I Die" and try to prove that you meant it and not anything like "Swansea till I can’t be bothered anymore" | ||||||||
| I thought last season took alot out of me physically with the war against Petty – this season has drained me mentally as I am sure that it has many others. This is a football club that should not be relegated – plain and simple. We shouldn’t have got into this mess – we have and now let’s believe we can get out of it. I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you how we were going to do it but I haven’t but let’s believe we can. | ||||||||
| I finish with a few lines from Roger Evans’ Swansea Song that is still sung at the Vetch most weeks – what goes around comes around and maybe most of these words could spring true again | ||||||||
| "Once our City’s Football Team was known as Swansea Town | ||||||||
| But after year’s in Division Two, slowly they slipped down | ||||||||
| But we all knew there’d come a time when we’d see better days | ||||||||
| So spread your wings you silver Swans and rise and fly away" | ||||||||
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and remember one night at Wycombe back in 1994? Instead of Wembley we just sing |
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| "In the League, In The League, We’re the Famous Swansea City and we’re staying in the league" | ||||||||
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TOGETHER, WE CAN DO THIS. |
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