It seemed like such a good idea at the time when I issued a social media call for photos from fans of that magical day eight years ago when the Swans beat Reading at Wembley to secure promotion to the Premier League. Only it isn’t eight years ago today, it’s actually eight years ago yesterday as only one of the respondents on Twitter pointed out! It only needed one though to embarrass me and leave me wondering where the Hell I’ve lost another day of my life!! Oh well, on the plus side, at least that means that it’s pay day today!!
Whether it’s the actual anniversary or not, it hasn’t stopped fans sending in their images of one of the finest days in our club’s history.
Who can forget a day that saw the Swans storm into a three goal lead by half time only to get pegged back by a stubborn Reading fightback that was only thwarted by Garry Monk’s toe before Scott’s Sinclair’s hat-trick goal sealed a 4-2 win? Who could forget Kevin Johns putting the Reading mic-man to shame, humiliating the opposition’s Glee song before working Swans fans and players into a frenzy with his “this is OUR day” speech?
Who can forget the feeling of pride and excitement as thousands of us sang We Are The Champions whilst digesting the fact that once again we’d risen from the bottom division to the top, albeit at a slightly slower pace the second time around.
Despite the way our Premier League adventure stalled and then ended it is still very much worth celebrating the achievement that put Swansea City firmly on the global map. Yes it opened us up to the predatory attention of Hedgefunders and it corrupted a Board that had revelled in their status as fans first, but that should not detract from the heart pumping adventures we enjoyed in the first few years.
So why not check out the gallery of photos below, revel in your own memories of that day…and have a laugh at the Editor’s expense for getting his dates mixed up, the silly old fool!