Planet Swans ArchivesThe Swansea City vice captain missed a penalty the last time the Swans made a play off final – in 2006 against Barnsley at the Millennium Stadium.
That time it was play off hearbreak for Tate – who has been at Swansea for almost 10 years – but he hopes to banish those memories on Monday and help lift the Swans into the Premier League.
He was talking to the Western Mail about that penalty in Cardiff five years ago “I kicked it, the keeper went the right way and my world stopped
“I know for a fact their fans were cheering and ours were sighing, but to me everything was quiet.
“I didn’t hear anything.
“The only way I can describe it is that if you wake up in the morning before everyone else and don’t hear a sound. That’s all I remember about it.
“The rest was a blur. The next thing we were on the bus coming back.
“I honestly can’t remember what I did from missing the penalty to being at Port Talbot coming home.
“It was a numb feeling – real strange – and difficult to describe.
“It does affect you, but you don’t know how.
“No matter how many people are in the crowd or things that are going on around you, you’re completely unaware of it.
“I think Colin Pascoe (coach) and the gaffer’s on them before me!" Tate added when asked if he would take on if needed at Wembley
“In an ideal world I won’t be taking one and if I’m on the pitch with two minutes to go and the game’s level then I’ll probably ask to come off.
“But if it did come round to me again then I’d take it a lot differently. I wouldn’t be sidefooting it!
“I just fancied my chances,” he said. “I’d scored against Walsall and I’d been taking them all week before the Barnsley game and done well.
“But it wasn’t a good penalty. It wasn’t well-struck and I wouldn’t want to go through that again.
“The strangest thing was I went on holiday, I was walking down the street and there was a TV on in the bar.
“As I walked past the bar my penalty was on – but that one missed as well! It was surreal because it was only about a week after, but that’s the only time I’ve seen it.
“The year after we went away on holiday with Tom Williams (former Swansea team-mate) and he was good friends with Barnsley’s Bobby Hassell from their time there together.
“Bobby was at a barbecue we went to, but he didn’t mention my penalty. It was a good job because I would have punched him if he had!
“If you said in 2003 we would be here playing for a place in the Premier League then you would have been locked up,” he said.
“I think I aged 10 years that day against Hull because that was the biggest day in the club’s history.
“The consequences of not winning in ‘81 to make the top flight or this Monday were nothing like that game.
“The club might not have come back from it, there might not have even been a club. But, step by step, we’ve improved more than any other club in the country.
“Look at any league table you want, year after year we’ve progressed and only one season we finished lower than we did the previous year – and that saw the biggest change in the club’s history.
“Roberto (Martinez) came in and changed the way we trained, the way we played and the mentality – and from that day we kicked on.
“He got a lot of stick when he left, but he’s got to take massive credit for the job he did. Paulo (Sousa) carried it on and instilled defensive steel in us and now the gaffer’s taken it one or two steps on.
“Now we're only one game away from the biggest league in the world and it’s brilliant to think 40,000 Swansea fans will be behind us.
“Winning would be the icing on the cake for my Swansea career.”
