Darran
Roger Freestone
As most of you will know Amy’s health has always been frail but she was doing well in 1998 so we started taking her with us to watch the mighty Swans.
The minute John Hollins met her he knew instantly she was different.
He was magical with her and made her and us feel so special.
We started taking her to a few away games and always seemed end up in the same hotel as the team.
John would always come and speak to us in the bar on the Friday night or at breakfast the following morning,always.
One Saturday morning, away to Lincoln he said to my two kids “see you two in meeting room A at 11:30 for the pre-match meal.”
We could quite believe it,there’s me and Jocelyn sitting in the foyer drinking a coffee and the kids are having a pre-match meal with the team.
During that winter we woke up in the same hotel as the team one Saturday morning,I think it was Hull and there was a bit of frost about,we went down for breakfast and John told us there was going to be a pitch inspection,he asked for my phone number and said if he heard anything about the game being called off he’d ring me and let us know so we could get away early.
The game went ahead and we won,I’m driving down the M50 on the way home and my phone rings,no hands free and blue tooth in those days so Jocelyn clicks the answer button and holds the phone to my ear.
Caller: “Hey D enjoy the game?”
Me: “Who’s this?”
Caller: “John.”
Me: “John who?”
Caller: “John Hollins.”
Me: “Yeah right,stop messing who is it?”
Caller: “It’s John Hollins.”
Suddenly I remember I’d given John my number that morning.
Me: “Bloody hell John what’s happening.”
I couldn’t believe it here’s little old me a lifelong Swansea City fan being phoned up by the manager for a chat.
Anyway about 10 days later I’m at home and my phone rings and it’s John again,”hey D are you going to the away game on Saturday?”
Me: “We are hoping to.”
John: “Well we are staying at so and so hotel if you want to check in there with us.”
This went on every other week until John left the club,they were wonderful times and I don’t know who enjoyed it more,me or the kids.
In the January of 2000 Amy’s school without us knowing had nominated her for a UK wide Child of Achievement Award,they’d written to the football club and asked if John would back the nomination,of course he did and wrote a magnificent letter backing it.
Amy won the award and was one of only 150 children/young people to go to the Hilton on Park Lane to receive the award off Sir John Major.
Part of the prize was a £1000 voucher off Airtours,to go anywhere in the world.
Then we are playing Exeter City at home and if we win we get promoted.
John says to Tony the tunnel steward when (not if) we win today (he points at my two kids} bring those two into the dressing room.
It was pandemonium,photographers the lot in there and the photos with my two kids are in all the major newspapers on the Sunday morning.
So we go on to win the league title by beating Rotherham at Milmoor on the Saturday,John phones up on the following Wednesday and asks if Amy is in school the following morning.
I say yes and he says well if she can sneak away for a hour we are having a photo shoot down The Vetch with the league trophy if you want to bring her down.
Bugger school and down we went.
Then in June 2000 the Swans announced they were going on a summer tour of Ireland playing Waterford, Cobh Ramblers and Cork City,Amy still had the £1000 voucher presented to her at the awards in London and Airtours had mentioned if there were any problems to contact them so I did,I said Amy wasn’t great in warm climates and that I had had a little mishap myself,they replied telling me to untie throw the voucher in the bin and they then sent me £1000 and we shot off to Ireland to watch the Swans,it paid for everything,the ferry,the hotels,everything.
On the night of the final game against Cork City,John called me over and asked me if I had the car with me,I said no and he replied “well the players have put in a great weeks work training so we are going for a little drink tonight and we are getting you on the team coach and you’re coming with us.
After the game I hopped up the steps of the bus and slumped in the front seat whilst the driver threw my wheelchair in the boot of the coach.
John got on and sat next to me,there I am sitting on the Swansea City team coach next to the Swansea City manager being driven through Ireland,you couldn’t make this up I’m in dreamland.
We get to this pub and I’m suddenly sitting at a table having a beer with Coatsey,Kris O’Leary,Matt Bound etc.
We’re talking about great players over the years and John,who’s been going around talking to everyone turns up at our table and asks what we are talking about?
I replied the best players of all time and say to him “you must have played against George Best,John yeah?”
He replied “yes he was a brilliant player but the best I ever played against was Pelé.
Ooh I thinks this is interesting,he then goes on to tell us that Chelsea played Santos in an exhibition match in Kingston,Jamaica in 1972 on the hardest cabbage patch of a pitch where nobody could control the ball except of course Pelé.
He said he’d never seen anything like it bad that the guy was a freak of nature.
He then said that on his way out of the stadium he saw a queue about quarter of a mile long,he asked someone what was going on and it was a queue to get an autograph off Pelé so he joined the end of it and got an autograph for his son Chris.
I’m just sitting there opening and closing my mouth like a gold fish think people pay to go to gentlemen’s evenings to hear stories like this and I’m sitting here listening to this for free.
With that we were presented with the Swansea to Cork Ferries Crystal Glass Bowl and as time is getting on and we all get back on the team coach and go to the team hotel for more drinks.
It was absolutely magical.
The following season was tough after being promoted but in January 2001 he rung me and asked were we going to be home that evening?
Yes I said but why? He said ‘I’ll see you later.”
A hour or two later there’s a knock on the door,there’s John holding a black bin bag and there’s obviously something in it.
He delves into the black bag and pulls out a red Adidas puffer jacket and says “I could see Amy at the game the other night and she looked cold,this jacket belongs to my daughter Liz but it’s a little small on her now and it should fit Amy nicely.
Mind blowing,absolutely mind blowing.
When the question is posed what is the best game you’ve ever been to many Swans fans will remember the New Years game away to Peterborough United where we were 2-0 down and came back to win 3-2,at London Road at that time like many other away grounds disabled away fans were in with the home fans,John could see that Amy was in their section and came over,lifted her over and walked her down the touch line and sat her in our dug out with our subs,it was an amazing game and he brought her back to us at the end,the first thing he said was “before we mention the game allow me to apologise for Barry Fry’s obscene language which Amy would have heard,she absolutely loved it.
John would come and chat to us at every hone game and at one game he went to speak to me but someone called him and he said to me “hold that a minute D I have to speak to this guy he’s important” and he put something in my hand,being a nosey so and so I hadn’t really taken much notice of what he’d put in my hand I was stretching my neck to see who this important guy was,then I looked at what he’d put in my hand,it was his winners medal from the 1970 FA Cup Final when Chelsea beat Leeds,I was stunned.
The minute John Hollins met her he knew instantly she was different.
He was magical with her and made her and us feel so special.
We started taking her to a few away games and always seemed end up in the same hotel as the team.
John would always come and speak to us in the bar on the Friday night or at breakfast the following morning,always.
One Saturday morning, away to Lincoln he said to my two kids “see you two in meeting room A at 11:30 for the pre-match meal.”
We could quite believe it,there’s me and Jocelyn sitting in the foyer drinking a coffee and the kids are having a pre-match meal with the team.
During that winter we woke up in the same hotel as the team one Saturday morning,I think it was Hull and there was a bit of frost about,we went down for breakfast and John told us there was going to be a pitch inspection,he asked for my phone number and said if he heard anything about the game being called off he’d ring me and let us know so we could get away early.
The game went ahead and we won,I’m driving down the M50 on the way home and my phone rings,no hands free and blue tooth in those days so Jocelyn clicks the answer button and holds the phone to my ear.
Caller: “Hey D enjoy the game?”
Me: “Who’s this?”
Caller: “John.”
Me: “John who?”
Caller: “John Hollins.”
Me: “Yeah right,stop messing who is it?”
Caller: “It’s John Hollins.”
Suddenly I remember I’d given John my number that morning.
Me: “Bloody hell John what’s happening.”
I couldn’t believe it here’s little old me a lifelong Swansea City fan being phoned up by the manager for a chat.
Anyway about 10 days later I’m at home and my phone rings and it’s John again,”hey D are you going to the away game on Saturday?”
Me: “We are hoping to.”
John: “Well we are staying at so and so hotel if you want to check in there with us.”
This went on every other week until John left the club,they were wonderful times and I don’t know who enjoyed it more,me or the kids.
In the January of 2000 Amy’s school without us knowing had nominated her for a UK wide Child of Achievement Award,they’d written to the football club and asked if John would back the nomination,of course he did and wrote a magnificent letter backing it.
Amy won the award and was one of only 150 children/young people to go to the Hilton on Park Lane to receive the award off Sir John Major.
Part of the prize was a £1000 voucher off Airtours,to go anywhere in the world.
Then we are playing Exeter City at home and if we win we get promoted.
John says to Tony the tunnel steward when (not if) we win today (he points at my two kids} bring those two into the dressing room.
It was pandemonium,photographers the lot in there and the photos with my two kids are in all the major newspapers on the Sunday morning.
So we go on to win the league title by beating Rotherham at Milmoor on the Saturday,John phones up on the following Wednesday and asks if Amy is in school the following morning.
I say yes and he says well if she can sneak away for a hour we are having a photo shoot down The Vetch with the league trophy if you want to bring her down.
Bugger school and down we went.
Then in June 2000 the Swans announced they were going on a summer tour of Ireland playing Waterford, Cobh Ramblers and Cork City,Amy still had the £1000 voucher presented to her at the awards in London and Airtours had mentioned if there were any problems to contact them so I did,I said Amy wasn’t great in warm climates and that I had had a little mishap myself,they replied telling me to untie throw the voucher in the bin and they then sent me £1000 and we shot off to Ireland to watch the Swans,it paid for everything,the ferry,the hotels,everything.
On the night of the final game against Cork City,John called me over and asked me if I had the car with me,I said no and he replied “well the players have put in a great weeks work training so we are going for a little drink tonight and we are getting you on the team coach and you’re coming with us.
After the game I hopped up the steps of the bus and slumped in the front seat whilst the driver threw my wheelchair in the boot of the coach.
John got on and sat next to me,there I am sitting on the Swansea City team coach next to the Swansea City manager being driven through Ireland,you couldn’t make this up I’m in dreamland.
We get to this pub and I’m suddenly sitting at a table having a beer with Coatsey,Kris O’Leary,Matt Bound etc.
We’re talking about great players over the years and John,who’s been going around talking to everyone turns up at our table and asks what we are talking about?
I replied the best players of all time and say to him “you must have played against George Best,John yeah?”
He replied “yes he was a brilliant player but the best I ever played against was Pelé.
Ooh I thinks this is interesting,he then goes on to tell us that Chelsea played Santos in an exhibition match in Kingston,Jamaica in 1972 on the hardest cabbage patch of a pitch where nobody could control the ball except of course Pelé.
He said he’d never seen anything like it bad that the guy was a freak of nature.
He then said that on his way out of the stadium he saw a queue about quarter of a mile long,he asked someone what was going on and it was a queue to get an autograph off Pelé so he joined the end of it and got an autograph for his son Chris.
I’m just sitting there opening and closing my mouth like a gold fish think people pay to go to gentlemen’s evenings to hear stories like this and I’m sitting here listening to this for free.
With that we were presented with the Swansea to Cork Ferries Crystal Glass Bowl and as time is getting on and we all get back on the team coach and go to the team hotel for more drinks.
It was absolutely magical.
The following season was tough after being promoted but in January 2001 he rung me and asked were we going to be home that evening?
Yes I said but why? He said ‘I’ll see you later.”
A hour or two later there’s a knock on the door,there’s John holding a black bin bag and there’s obviously something in it.
He delves into the black bag and pulls out a red Adidas puffer jacket and says “I could see Amy at the game the other night and she looked cold,this jacket belongs to my daughter Liz but it’s a little small on her now and it should fit Amy nicely.
Mind blowing,absolutely mind blowing.
When the question is posed what is the best game you’ve ever been to many Swans fans will remember the New Years game away to Peterborough United where we were 2-0 down and came back to win 3-2,at London Road at that time like many other away grounds disabled away fans were in with the home fans,John could see that Amy was in their section and came over,lifted her over and walked her down the touch line and sat her in our dug out with our subs,it was an amazing game and he brought her back to us at the end,the first thing he said was “before we mention the game allow me to apologise for Barry Fry’s obscene language which Amy would have heard,she absolutely loved it.
John would come and chat to us at every hone game and at one game he went to speak to me but someone called him and he said to me “hold that a minute D I have to speak to this guy he’s important” and he put something in my hand,being a nosey so and so I hadn’t really taken much notice of what he’d put in my hand I was stretching my neck to see who this important guy was,then I looked at what he’d put in my hand,it was his winners medal from the 1970 FA Cup Final when Chelsea beat Leeds,I was stunned.
