The latest ATFV Guest Article sees Andy Concannon write about his adventures travelling to Swansea to follow the Swans. Like many of our fans, Andy doesn’t livc local anymore but that doesn’t stop him getting to the Liberty whenever possible. In his first piece for ATFV Andy gives us his thoughts on the performance against Preston…
At last it’s match day!
The day started with a drama as usual; I dropped my phone and it smashed so the e-ticket for the train was deemed inadmissible. That meant a financial hit was taken early doors but cross country softened the blow with a voucher so we parted Taunton on good terms.
After a quick change at Bristol Parkway we rocked into Swansea just before 12pm to be met by some lovely South Walian weather (i.e. pissing down!) and with no coat present I was feeling decidedly under-dressed. Thankfully the barman at The No Sign suggested that a trip to Primark may save the day! £12 later and via Hogarths and I was off to the Liberty.
Getting into the stadium it seemed a decent crowd and that the Jack Army were prepared to back their team to the hilt. With the players available it seemed that the team almost picked itself. Despite the fact that we are clearly shy of a few players in a few positions, our pace and attacking options will scare plenty of teams this season.
I thought we were outstanding in the first half with plenty of lovely angles but with an end product rather than the passing for passing’s sake of previous seasons.
A penalty missed and a goalkeeper injured made it feel like bloody typical Swansea luck. But going into the break with a goal from the ever prolific (!) Jay Fulton filled us with positive vibes.
In truth we never got going second half but what we missed in creativity we made up for in guts, passion, and a desire to play for Swansea City…
…this is all we can ask for and I don’t feel I can criticise a misplaced pass if the aforementioned criteria is at the forefront of the performance.
We definitely rode our luck and maybe better teams to visit the Liberty this season will take advantage of that but we are a work in progress. Rome (or Lazio) wasn’t built in a day and hopefully with some loan additions we may keep growing as a unit and improve steadily.
Following a tense last few minutes the final whistle put us out of our misery and the boys celebrated whilst clearly out on their feet!
Every player to a man/youngster put a shift in and clearly wanted to be there representing our team. Obvious special mentions should go to Joe Rodon, Oli McBurnie, Erwin Mulder and the re-emergence of Leroy Fer but great to see a team genuinely ecstatic at seeing the game out.
What I did especially like was the whole team walking the length of the East Stand acknowledging the support (even Wilfried Bony). I don;t know if this is orchestrated or not but I for one think it is a vast improvement on a couple of claps from the halfway line.
The rain continued to hammer down all the way to the station so after a quick pint in the Grand Hotel I jumped on the train home. I rocked up in Taunton at 9:15pm and celebrated in The Plough (bonkers but brilliant pub).
I missed the highlights that night and the next morning but happy in the knowledge that we were closer to the magical mark of 40 points!
…oh wait! Hang on a minute…it’s not like that anymore!!