Planet Swans ArchivesBut it hasn’t stopped me supporting ‘my’ club. Although time and expense often means matches are followed by Ceefax or radio, there are always occasions, such as derby games or cup-ties, when you just have to be there. This caused few problems when I was living in Leicester and when I spent four years in London. Things were a bit more difficult between 1992 and 1995, when we lived in Germany. While I would plan holidays home to coincide with as many games as possible, there were two particular occasions when I had to make specific trips back just for the game itself. The later trip was Wembley in 1994, probably the greatest day I’ve ever had as a Swansea fan. However, enough has been written about that match and my story concerns the first trip back, to Nuneaton Borough in November 1993.
Swansea had been very lucky to get a last minute equaliser in the first round of the FA Cup at the Vetch. The omens for the replay were not good and I actually felt that we’d lose. I don’t know why I wanted to go, but for whatever reason, I just had to be there. I flew to Heathrow on the day of the game and arranged to meet two friends from Leicester at Nuneaton Station. We found our way to the ground and went to get tickets. You can imagine my delight to be told it was an all-ticket game and that there was no way in. They were kind enough to sell me a programme though, ‘to give us something to read on the way home’. What nice people we thought! I poured my heart out to no avail, until a Swansea policeman told us to sit tight while he went to see what could be done. Now I have a lot of respect for our local police force but, with only an hour to kick-off, I wasn’t about to hang around so I set off on a ticket search of my own. I managed to convince some local stewards that I had an appointment with the commercial manager, whose name I’d got from the programme. Once inside I managed to convince him that he had three tickets put aside for me that I’d booked earlier. I returned triumphant to my friends, waved the tickets at the programme-seller and disappeared into the local pub.
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