Autoglass Memories Pt VII

Autoglass Memories – Doug Sharpe’s Preview

Sunday April 24th at Wembley will be a special day for myself and everyone else connected with Swansea City Football Club. I’ve been to Wembley on a number of occasions, but going there, as Chairman, with Swansea one of the teams involved, will be tremendous. It’ll be a smashing day out for the city of Swansea, and I hope people will be taking their children and families along, as the facilities at Wembley are excellent. I’m looking for us to be taking around 25 to 30 thousand supporters, and I hope we can do the business on the day. The atmosphere at Wycombe for the return leg of our semi-final there was superb. Our supporters were magnificent, they got behind the team from beginning to end, and though we had to do some defending up there, especially in the first half, we came back extremely well, and could easily have scored some goals ourselves in the second half. Success in the Autoglass Trophy obviously helps the bank balance of a club like ours – getting to Wembley itself makes quite a lot of money for the club, and so makes things easier in the future. Since Frank Burrows has been our manager, a lot of good things have happened, including on our youth side, and hopefully we’ll now continue to see young players coming through into the first team and even higher. Frank is a good motivator and a good manager, and we’re certainly on the right track.

At one stage this season we had as many as six first-team players out injured – even the likes of Arsenal and Manchester Unites can’t cope with that, but it’s nice to think that our supporters are now going to have their day out at Wembley. I remember in the first division days, the motorways were packed with Swansea supporters going to matches – let’s make it the same on the road to Wembley. And yes – I’ll certainly be bringing my famous tin hat to Wembley – it went to every game when we reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1964, and it’ll be there this time too. Enjoy the day Doug Sharpe

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Pictures courtesy of Colin Jones and Jamie Robinson

Why not check out the latest Vetch Verdict on the BBC site?