Planet Swans ArchivesThe Swansea City vice captain put the icing on one particular cake on Tuesday night when he scored the fourth against Preston from 25 yards but he also believes that the icing on the bigger cake will be a place in the Premier League.
Tate has slotted in at left back following the problems that sidelined first Marcos Painter then Fede Bessone and finally Stephen O’Hallorhan in a matter of weeks.
And his displays have earned widespread praise from the supporters who have seen Tate grow to become an integeral part of the club after he arrived during the dark days of fighting against relegation from the football league.
Speaking to the Evening Post, Tate said “I think everyone knows how passionate I am about this club
“Myself, Kris (O’Leary), Leon (Britton) and the gaffer have been together for a long time at Swansea.
“We have come through some dark times together and it’s nice that we are putting together some really good performances in the Championship now.
“It’s unbelievable, really, when you think how far we have come.
“I had some friends down for Preston and, as I said to them, there were 91 teams in the country better than us when we joined.
“Now there’s only 20-something, so it’s a massive gap that we’ve closed.
“I’ve grown to love this club and this area, and it’s nice that we are now producing the football to make the area proud.
“Preston are a good team, but we played really well.
“Maybe that contributed to the way they played on the night. That’s the way we view it — that we played well and not that they played badly.
“As a defender it was disappointing to concede a goal late on as we did.
“But then we still won the game by three goals, so we will take that.
“To get to the Premier League would just be the icing on the cake,” Tate adds.
“That’s the dream situation for me, Kris, Leon and the gaffer — to be able to say we went all the way through the divisions with this club.
“Can we do it? Why not?
“We spent the first half of this season getting our feet under the table in this division.
“But we have played all the best teams now and we have done well against them.
“We have nothing to be afraid of and we just have to keep working now. We’ll see what happens.
“I was going to go down the line, but there was no-one for me to pass to so I checked back and there was a little gap between the defenders
“It was great to see it go in, but I’m not sure about the fans shouting ‘shoot’ every time I got the ball.”
