Planet Swans ArchivesIt was not the Christmas present that we wanted. The previous Saturday the Swans had secured a 1-0 win at the Vetch as they fought to stave off not just relegation back to the basement but also their very future as the financial problems caused by the rise to the top took hold.
The Evening Post delivers the news
The Golden Years as they have become known just about finished this football club off. There were a variety of problems within the period itself but by the time the 80s were approaching their midway stage, the future of the Swans was as bleak as it got. And as the crowd left following the win over York on December 14 what they didn’t fully know at that time was whether they had witnessed the final game in the history of Swansea City.
Just six days later the club was wound up in the high court. Appeals from the club for further adjournments to the winding up order were rejected by both the Inland Revenue and the Vetch Field Residents association. Swansea City had effectively ceased to exist and within four years from topping the league they had sunk to a position from where there looked as if there may be no route back. Swans fans were stunned as they faced up to the news and the fact that the game against rivals Cardiff City on Boxing Day was unlikely to take place.
However, a group of former Directors worked hard and eventually got permission for the Swans to partake in that fixture and despite losing to a last minute goal it was the achievement of playing rather than the result that mattered. We know what happened from there as a number of further visits to the High Court eventually ended in May 1986 when Doug Share achieved a 10-1 vote in favour of his proposals to secure the future of the Swans despite their relegation to then Division Four.
Doug Sharpe celebrates with his ‘team’ which includes at least one current JackArmy.net poster
It’s incredible to look back now and think that it was 20 years ago that we lost the club. And less than five years since we almost lost it again. And as we embark on an adventure that is showing similarities to the one at the end of the 1970s we know that we are much more secure then we were then. And may we continue to be so.
But let us never forget the dark days of December 1985 and no matter what your feelings are towards Doug Sharpe let us never forget the work that he and many others put into the club at that time.
