The Vetch Field originally was owned by the British Gaslight Company but the Swans moved into situ at the ground upon their formation in 1912. During 93 years at the ground, there were many memorable moments and for so many of us those memories are the same and watching football in the modern surrounds of an all seater stadium will never be the same.
I was reminded when I started to write this piece of words used by Alan Curtis days before we played the last game at the Vetch when he said “The Vetch may look like a tired, jaded old ground, but the place comes alive on match days and flowers with a life of its own.” Those words were so true and when you think back over the years there were some amazing days and nights and we should never forget that the Vetch played host to the biggest teams in British football and many of them went home empty handed.
Back in the 1960s over 32,000 crammed into the Vetch for an FA Cup tie against Arsenal but the capacity dwindled over the years as the landscape of the Vetch changed. Gone was the double decker that stood so proudly behind one of the goals for so long and the boards that lined up towards the back of the North Bank reduced the capacity even more to such an extent that just around 12,000 was the official capacity although 11,469 was the attendance at the last league game against Shrewsbury in April 2005. The highest league crowd though was under 30,000 but notably in their last season at the ground the Swans had the highest average attendance in their division for the first time.
Adrian Forbes was the scorer of the last league goal in that particular game whilst 11 days later it was Andy Robinson that scored the last ever goal at the Vetch when he scored the winner against Wrexham in the FAW Premier Cup.
The Vetch hasn’t just housed the Swans though. Wales played 18 internationals there including two World cup qualifiers whilst 6 rugby league internationals were also held at the ground.
On the lowside the lowest average attendance at the Vetch was just 2,052 in the 1974/75 season whilst the lowest ever attendance was 1,358 for a league game against Northampton Town.
The Vetch field was demolished in 2011.
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Why not take a look at our Vetch Field Photo Gallery
