Are Swansea a "sleeping giant", or a club whom the long term demographic restructuring and wider economic changes in Britain has pretty much doomed to looking back on its glory days from further down the ladder? As nothing is preordained in football all we'll suggest is it has got harder and harder to see Swansea, despite being a City when they used to be a Town, regaining the heights they once achieved.

The Swansea club we see today was formed in 1912 at the Vetch Field and played in the Southern League. We missed them by a whisker, as shortly before Yeovil & Petters United joined that league Swansea Town had become founder members of Division Three. In the 1924-25 season they took the Division Three (South) title and moved into Division Two, where they remained until after World War II. A couple of seasons back in Division Three (South) again saw them clinch a Championship in the 1948-49 season, and they were back in Division Two until the mid Sixties.

Swansea's new 'White Rock' (now 'Liberty') ground under construction during May 2004 © Tim Lancaster

At the end of the 1964-65 season the club slipped into Division Three and subsequently into Division Four. There was a brief revival in 1969-70, when promotion to the Third was achieved but three seasons later the Swans were relegated again. From this unpromising situation Swansea City, as they had become in 1970, achieved one of the great promotion sequences in British football. From finishing 22nd in 1974-75, and having to apply for re-election, they first consolidated their league status, and then with John Toshack coming in as player-manager gained promotion to Division Three (1977-78), promotion to Division Two (1978-79) and for the first time, promotion to Division One (1980-81). In that first season of 1981-82 in the top flight they headed the table three times and were never out of the top six.

Sadly for the Swans their collapse was almost as dramatic as their rise. Relegated from Division One in 1982-83, further relegation followed the next season, and the season after that they only avoided Division Four on the last game of the season. Disaster on the pitch was being mirrored off it, as Swansea limped through the 1985-86 season with winding up orders and court visits an almost weekly occurrence. Amidst the chaos they almost inevitably slipped into Division Four, but at least they emerged extant from their financial turmoil.

Terry Yorath got them back to Division Three through the play-offs in 1987-88 but then entered, apart from a spell under manager Frank Burrows, a long period of instability, with managers coming and going at a frightening rate. It was during this spell of relative calm under Burrows that Swansea secured some silverware with a victory over Huddersfield Town in a penalty shoot out in the Autoglass Final at Wembley on April 24 1994.

Swansea's fate was one of take-overs, abortive take overs, managers frequently lasting days rather than years, false dawns including a Championship under John Hollins, financial crises, the occasional figure in the boardroom that only the advice of our lawyers prevents us terming "crooks", until in 2002-03 Football League status was only retained on the final day of the campaign.

New figures at the top and a new manager in Brian Flynn seemed to be offering Swansea new hope. Another of those false dawns for the Swansea faithful resulted as Flynn was sacked rather out of the blue a few weeks before the end of the 2003-04 season. An excellent run to the Fifth Round of the F.A. Cup was accommpanied as so often by a decline in league form, with the Swans only winning two of their last fourteen games. However the reason given for the dismissal appeared to be infuenced by the old South/North Wales divide as much as results on the pitch. Kenny Jackett was then appointed as Swansea's sixth manager in the new Millennium.

In an incredibly tight League Two 2004-05 season Swansea took the last automatic promotion place, and so entered their new home of er Morfa, er White Rock, er New, er Liberty Stadium as a League One side. At this higher level they in first or second place pretty consistently all the way through to January. Of course they took it in their usual restrained quiet way, not shouting their mouths off, rubbing everyone else's noses in it, or getting "We're Gonna Piss That Championship League" tattooed across their foreheads in advance. So everyone was really genuinely disappointed for them when they ballsed it up, only scraped into the play-offs, and then ballsed it up again in the Final. And didn't laugh like drains at them - well not for more than a week or two. They did win the Anonymous (LDV Vans having gone bust and the sponsorship having collapsed mid-way through the competition) Trophy though and, in their gracious style, tried to insult their Cardiff hosts at the Millennium Stadium to celebrate the success.

The 2006-07 season was meant to be the great leap forward. Having managed success in the not-the-LDV, and having missed out in the play-offs, the subsequent season was meant to be a strollathon and when that didn't happen. Kenny Jackett kept the Swans largely on the edge of the play-offs and that wasn't good enough. In February 2007 he resigned claiming that he was not receiving universal backing from the club's hierachy or its supporters. An effort to get him to change his mind failed, and for a couple of matches Reserve Team manager and former player Kevin Nugent took over before Roberto Martinez - another former player - was given the reins.

Martinez has delved heavily in the transfer market such that the autumn 2007 match at Huish Park saw a Swansea bench full of the Swansea old guard, such as Andy Robinson, whilst Alan Tate turned up the following Wednesday playing for the Reserves. The new Swansea boss has replaced Lee Trundle, now at Bristol City, with Jason Scotland and certainly deserves a lot of credit for the way he has taken the Welsh side to a new level. They will depart League One up into the Championship at the end of this season, and it would be a great surprise if they did not do so as Champions.

Looking across the Liberty towards the South Stand Photo © 2005-06 Ciderspace

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FORTHCOMING FIXTURES

CLUB GOALSCORERS

Name

LGE

FAC

FAT

LGC

CC

Total

ATTENDANCE STATISTICS

Highest League Attendance: Not Applicable
Lowest League Attendance: Not Applicable
Average League Attendance: Not Applicable

CURRENT LEAGUE SEQUENCE STATISTICS

Games Without A Win:	0		Games Without A Home Win:	0
Games Without An Away Win:	0		Games Without Defeat:	0
Games Without A Home Defeat:	0		Games Without An Away Defeat:	0
Games Without A Draw:	0		Games Without A Score Draw:	0
Games Without A No-Score Draw:	0		Games Without Scoring:	0
Games Without Conceding:	0		Home Results Sequence:
Away Results Sequence:			Overall Results Sequence:

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Swansea's North Stand, the away area Photo © 2005-06 Ciderspace

Visiting supporters in coaches and mini buses are able to park at the stadium, under police instruction and discretion.

By Rail

The station is Swansea High Street on the Paddington / Bristol Temple Meads mainline. It is about 2 miles from the stadium. You could take your bike.

By Bus

The 4 and 4a run closest to the stadium.

By Taxi

A selection of Swansea taxi companies can be found here.

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Local Pubs :

As with any new stadium location one has to play it by ear for the first few visits as to how the local hostelries will be affected by a massive change to their clientele on matchdays. The authorities, a miserable charmless bunch of killjoys from the 1870's Temperance Movement by the looks of things, appeared to be trying to ensure licenced outlets anywhere near the new stadium were barred to away fans when the stadium opened in 2005. Thankfully when we ventured away from the stadium in 2007, things didn't appear to be as draconian as the authorities were making out. It's not all good though.

The first thing to point out is that there are few pubs in the area anyway, so all are going to be very busy with home supporters. As everywhere the vast majority of football fans are pleasant people, but Swansea does appear to have a greater share of tossers spoiling for aggravation than most. Long-in-the-tooth exponents of the art of away travel will have a well developed sense of which pubs are likely to be OK and which are to avoided just from the outside, without even having to venture in. That said we wouldn't walk into anywhere around here flaunting colours straight off. Those available within five to ten minutes of the ground are :

The Railway, Siloh Road - very much hardcore home territory and should definitely be avoided.

The Dillwyn Arms, Llangyfelach Road - likely welcome not known.

The Coopers Arms, Neath Road - very large, and very full of Jacks. Should be OK, but maybe best to keep a low profile initially.

The Globe, Mysydd Road - popular with regulars on the Jackarmy forum, should be OK.

The Station Inn, Hamilton Street - closest pub to stadium, and the away end. Small and absolutely jam packed on matchdays.

The Mex, Neath Road - has opened since the arrival of the stadium. Likely welcome not known.

Without going over the top this is one of the few trips in the League we'd recommend you treat with some caution and discretion. We've not personally experienced any problems in our trips to Swansea, but there have been reports from Yeovil fans of some hostility. Thankfully on the scale of things there is some reasonable respect between the two clubs and so we figure that we probably are fairly low on their 'hate list' - relatively speaking - we are English of course, which doesn't help!

Likelihood the Natives Will Understand You :

It doesn't matter. You probably won't meet any. Well not any fans. Plenty of plod and stewards, and the odd bus driver. Don't worry, you'll feel at home as they will be just as officious, and possibly more so, as any of their counterparts this side of the Severn.

Top-Tip :

Don't forget to take your Severn Bridge toll money. You pay to get into Wales; it's free to get out. The Welsh aren't daft. As of April 2008, it is £5.30 for a car, increasing to £15.90 for a heavy goods vehicle. Motorcycles and disabled badge holders are exempt from the tolls, although both must stop at the toll booths to have their eligibility confirmed. See the Severn Bridge website for full details.

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