Phil SumblerThe history books will tell us that our first season in the top flight was 40 years ago but to many of us it will seem like just yesterday that John Toshack and his side rose from the fourth division to the very top of the first, taking some of the biggest names and scalps in English football along the way.
None more so than on 30th January 1982 when Ron Atknson bought his table topping Manchester United side to Swansea only to see them return to the North West after the game with no points and Atkinson moaning about a first goal that he said was “so far offside thatit didn’t look like there was any argument.”
The Swansea team of the day did not need any introduction to us as Swans fans but a glance at the Manchester United side saw the likes of Ray Wilkins, Steve Coppell, Lou Macari and a young Bryan Robson, signed earlier that season from West Brom.
There was a new face in the Swans side though with Ray Kennedy making his debut having secured a £160,000 move from Liverpool just a few days before. The scene was set and the game played out in front of a capacity crowd at the Vetch Field. Michael Boon MBE, then sports journalist for the Sunday Express in Wales wrote this match report on the game.
Two explosive minutes of swashbuckling plunder enabled Swansea to knock United off the top of the First Division. Alan Curtis in the 54th minute and then Robbie James in the 56th, struck to tear apart a United defence that had been imposing padlock security.
After four defeats in their last five league games and that FA Cup humiliation by Liverpool, this was the win above all others that Swansea needed. And once in the driving seat, they never relaxed the command so decisively snatched in those two remarkable minutes. The stalemate was suddenly broken by defender Max Thompson, whose scissors-kick suddenly ripped open United’s defence.
The ball cleared a line of United defenders, who apparently were anticipating an offside decision, and dropped to Curtis.
The Wales striker, without a goal from his previous nine matches and stung by public demands for more action from manager John Toshack responded instantly.
He took the ball confidently in his stride and flashed a right-footed shot past Gary Bailey.
United manager Ron Atkinson was infuriated by the defeat – and especially that first goal. “It looked so far offside that I didn’t think there was any argument.
“Those couple of minutes turned the game inside out. We didn’t take our chances either. There were two in the first half and two in the second – all of which should have been goals.
Toshack said “That goal will do Curtis the world of good. It was a great win from us.”
Alarm bells rang instantly thoughout the United side – and they were still rocking with apprehension as Leighton James, a 35th minute substitute for injured Neil Robinson, produced the decisive, high quality control that deserved to seal this mistake-strewn match.
James, also under the lash of manager Toshack, accelerated along the left-hand touchline and whipped over a low cross that curled tantalisingly away from the fingertip of the diving Bailey.
It was a gem of a move, and it produced the palm out from Bailey that James had calculated.
The ball struck Bob Latchford, rebounded back towards the line five yards away and was checked by a desperately lunging Gordon McQueen. But Robbie James, racing in powerfully, was left with the easiest of finishing touches for his fifth goal in eight games.
Bailey recovered three minutes later with a brilliant tipover from Colin Irwin’s header following a Leighton James corner.
Despite the wild, weak distribution of the ball from a series of snuffed out moves, United must have left the Vetch Field after their first competitive game there in 42 years wondering how they had allowed the points to slip away.
Garry Birtles blundered with a poorly-controlled lob over the bar when completely unmarked in the first half.
Ray Kennedy, signed in midweek for £160,000 from Liverpool, helped find that badly needed balance on the left sought by Toshack.
Kennedy, never short of match practice, never took the game by the scruff of its neck, but helped give the Swans some welcome stability.
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