Part 2 of a great season.
At the end of our
first PL Season, now that we can draw breath, it seems like a fine time
to have a look backward, and to try to put some perspective on what's
been, by any measurement, a fantastic ride.
The
fabulous feeling from the first half was something we both
experienced, and took in, and had almost started to confirm our belief that
we could not only survive, but thrive a little.
As we
turned to a second half that if replicated, or at least came close to
that start, would leave us still rampantly incumbent in this hardest of
Divisions, we started to not only continue the enjoyment, but leave a
mark too.
Hey, this is after all the Barclays Premier
League, and it is generally considered to be the hardest League in World
Football, particularly for competitiveness. Coincidentally, if you doubt
that competitiveness, UEFA has today published it's Co-Efficients for
all nations, and it confirms that the Premier League is
still on top - just - with Spain's La Liga marginally just behind over the 5 year cycle period.
Full rankings here.
Meanwhile, if you'd like to remind yourself of that first half tale of the Season with regard to us you can
get it right here.
So
this article will concern itself with the second period, and just like
all good plays and films, music pieces, anything that raises the human
spirit really, this turned out to complete the compelling narrative,
coming to a fitting climax with the last day defeat of another of the
Division's iconic Clubs in Liverpool FC - a game, moreover, where a
defeat to Swansea cost yet another Manager his job.
We
do have a habit of doing that, and whilst I don't want to seem to be
glorying in someone else's misfortune, long may that be the case.
There
was no doubt that this second half would be harder, but what we'd seen
thus far more than compensated for any out and out fears - it
was
the case that the way we were playing meant that we were genuinely one
of the better teams in the Division, and the key now was to make our
results reflect the ever growing recognition of our talent and
performances.
Could we do this? We'd get to see, for sure.
The
win at Aston Villa had almost broken a lazy journalistic hoodoo that we
were not good enough to win Away from the Liberty, whilst the
performance merely confirmed for us Swans that we were really in decent
form - certainly capable enough to win at a Club that was stumbling and
grumbling its way through the season under the much derided
Big 'Eck, and they came a great deal closer of slipping through the trapdoor than we.
Coming
off that hugely energizing first win Away from Home at Aston Villa, the
Swans were drawn Away to Barnsley in January's first exploitation of
the FA Cup, the 3rd Round, and returned the victors of a 4-2 game which
saw BR flix and fritillate his first choice XI, the better to rest some
stalwarts we thought.
Who remembers now that whilst Danny Graham scored a screamer, one of the opposition scoresters was
Ricardo Vaz Te,
who's just been involved in the Play Off Final v Blackpool for WHU. He
was to score there too, and thus we get to face the Hammers next year,
along with our old friends from Reading, and Southampton's youngsters as
well.
That success at Barnsley led us into a string of important PL games, and January proved to be an influential month.
Just
a week after seeing off Barnsley, we faced Arsenal at the Liberty, and I
think it's fair to say that this was our key performance and result
from all of our PL games thus far.
Had we lost, we
would have slipped into the clutches of the bottom few who were
concerned mainly with their performances against each other. As it
happened, our 3-2 win sent us toward looking upward, and it was a
justifiable day of pride.
From
seeing the PL's golden boot, Robin van Persie, show Football how to
"thieve" a goal, the response from the team when it went to a 2-2 level
after Walcott's goal was similarly stunning. From a move on the right,
Danny Graham slotted a 3-2 winner, and the Liberty rocked again. It just
seemed louder than ever before.
This was genuinely a
keystone moment and result. It was the first time we had beaten one of
the "big beasts" of this Division. We'd also done it by outplaying
Arsenal - the finest exponent of pass and move football in the English
game for about the last 10yrs.
I can't imagine the psychological effect on the collective morale of our team - but I guess it might have been spectacular.
The pride and delight amongst us fans wasn't half bad either.
Nationally,
amongst pundits generally, we'd slipped from being "certainties to be
relegated" to "well, maybe they might hang on", although people were by
now talking about our style - not before time I may add.
It
was as if, as BR has said, some journalists had hardly got the names of
our squad right, and were equally clueless about the way we played.
MoTD
(not MoTD2), I'm looking at you, Shearer and Hansen particularly. I
remember feeling as smug as a bug in a rug to read yet another Newspaper
report about Swansea City's flowing football.
Still,
as we all know, ups and downs, that's what being a Swansea fan is about,
because then we followed it by going on to 2 disappointing results.
We
went on a visit to the North East's Estadio de Luiz, and, on a horribly
windy day next to the North Sea, Sunderland scored two wonder goals to
see us off.
There were large chunks of the game where
we were the better side, but any team managed by Martin O'Neil was
always going to be street-savvy. They were, and won.
Meanwhile
next up at ultimately relegated Bolton in the FA Cup, both teams just
seemed to go through the motions - and we simply weren't at the game,
and slipped out on the back of a 2-1 defeat.
To make
things worse, Bolton's Darren Pratley, the ex-Swan, was a scorer against
us, although he had the good grace not to celebrate too much, thereby
rubbing it in our faces.
Whatever, really, it was one
of the few occasions where we've come off second best by a street. There
was a need to pick ourselves up - and some.
The dual
losses had been disappointing, but more than that, what was more
worrying had been the performances-lite, where we'd struggled to even
get into the game, so Chelsea, next up at Home, was a big one.
We faced them, unusually, on a floodlit Tuesday Night, and the game turned out to be another fizz-bang cracker.
The
Liberty rocked to a decent performance from us - btw, is it just me
that gets severely enthused by a wintry floodlit cut and thrust
encounter that makes football (unbelievably) more exciting again?
As
it turned out, the performance more than matched the result - a 1-1
draw where Scott Sinclair's blistering goal against his former club was
only matched by a late late equalising own goal from Neil Taylor's
shuffle to a Bosingwa cross that got Chelsea out of jail.
There
were long patches again where we Swans were the dominant side, and yet
another "top 4 giant" found out that coming to the Lib is never ever
easy. However, Chelsea do fight to the death - just ask Bayern Munich
amongst others.
In a contest where we Swans performed
to our best, Chelsea were forever playing catch up, and where the late
goal got them a draw, the positives for us were incumbent in the
performance - this was another occasion where we were the better team.
It
was a game we deserved to win, but it at least got our spirits up, and I
specifically remember coming away from the game almost bursting with
pride, and listening to Stan Collymore on talkSport take several calls
from passionate Swans and dejected Chelsea-ites that confirmed the tale.
Lovely.
We immediately followed that up with a trip to
our nearest PL neighbours, WBA at the Hawthorns, and, on a snowbound
swirling wintry day saw further confirmation of Gylfi Sigurdsson's
enduring class and importance.
In a wonderfully
controlled performance, City dominated Away again, and Siggi's goal and
assist in the snow will live long in my memory, and did much to mitigate
a dizzying journey home in the Wintry conditions.
Swansea's
delightful football drew applause again from an Away crowd, and now the
Media generally were giving us the praise we deserved.
I'm told the Tabloids are not quite so fickle abroad - only in Britain, eh? Whatever.
On
the back of this terrific performance, the next two games, results
wise, again swung into the disappointing category, but as I've quoted of
the great Lord Ferg before "Football, eh, bloody hell".
Facing our fellow promotees Norwich City, at the Liberty, was it ever such a frustrating game!
Despite
taking a deserved lead from a Danny Graham goal, Paul Lambert's
tactically restructured Norwich roared back to take a 3-1 lead, only for
Graham to pull another back, and at the end of the game you'd say we
were a little unlucky to not equalise and claim a share of the spoils.
Worst of all, we had to suffer the awful Grant Holt's triumphant Tweets
on Twitter (he
had played well). I bit my tongue, and poured myself another
large scotch.
Even
worse, we went to the Northern off-shoot of Harlequins RFC ( Stoke
City) the following weekend and saw Michel Vorm's omission due to a
virus throw Gerhard Tremmel into goal at short notice.
Stoke
did what Stoke do. Hoof, charge, throw, charge, kick, snarl, narrow the
pitch, hoof again. Yes, I know I'm exaggerating, but not by much.
The most enlightening and accurate comments came from their own fans - I talked to lots - and they almost
all said they'd like their team to play like us. One even said he'd take relegation from the Prem to get Pulis's style out the door! Wow.
Both goals, btw, would have been saved by Vorm. Sorry Gerhard, but it's probably true.
It
was at this game that I met several more travelling fellow JackArmy
members that I'd only corresponded with previously. Kudos @epaul and
lots of others - you know who you are - Tom, Gareth, Hayley and others,
too. Respect.
The following week saw us go to Wigan, to
meet the brown shoe'd one, and beating his Cloob saw me for the first
real time convinced that we'd now stay in this Division.
In a game that saw Nathan Dyer absurdly sent off primarily for a spectacular fall from the eternally cute Jordi Gomez (as
we know),
the Swans dominated the game, and Gylfi Sigurdsson's double elicited
the classic "Is this a Fire Drill?" chant from the stupendous JackArmy
as the Home Crowd (sic) streamed for the exits well before the finish.
The game left us on 33pts, 11pts clear of the bottom 3 with just 11
games to play. Now, we
can do it, I thought.
The
psychological boost must have been huge, because the next 2 games saw
us turn in, for me, our season defining performances and results.
The
ultimate Champions, Citeh, came to visit the Liberty, and the place is
still rocking, I reckon, from an historic and fabulous day.
It
was a privilege to see our team take on a side that contained the
wonderful Sergio Aguerro, who sent the commentators everywhere into
ecstasy last week in scoring the goal that made for a fantastic title,
and the sublime David Silva, arguably the Prem's most talented player.
Couple this with their top class Manager, and the talent at their
disposal, and you have an occasion I'll never forget, for all the right
reasons.
In a blistering performance, Swansea stood toe
to toe with these Superstars, and came out on top. There are two key
moments I can still see in my internal video memory.
The
first is when Routledge's cross eluded all but Luke Moore, and as his
header hit the net I swear the Liberty measured on the Richter scale. We
went doo-lally.
The other was when the divine Sian
Massey stood proud and raised her flag, rightly, to rule out Micah
Richards header and sent Man City fans to give us one of the season's
enduring images - the
Man City cryer.
God bless Sian Massey, the best Lines Person in the Prem.
The
following weekend, both my sons and I made our way to Craven Cottage,
to see a Swans performance that's the best I've ever seen.
In
a match of total and utter dominance, the Swans played their opponents
off the park, with another 2 Sigurdsson goals and the applause of the
Fulham fans ringing in their ears. A truly divine, sublime performance. I
was there, and I also have the game recorded. I will never,
ever, erase
it. It remains, without a doubt, my favourite ever football match, and
it involved us, too.
It had been preceded the night
before by the Swans Trust holding a receptive evening for all London
Jacks and others at the London Welsh Club, an excellent evening attended
by our Chairman, our Manager, and Wales Manager Chris Coleman in a very
interesting Q&A and social session. Lovely.
But,
as we know as long suffering Jacks- the ridiculous often follows the
sublime, as we went on to record our only truly poor spell in a
fantastic and rewarding year.
The first of this period,
Everton at the Lib, was understandable, coming as it did against a
truly permanent member of the PL, and a Manager in David Moyes who has
few equals in motivational and tactical prowess. He has been performing
miracles at the perennially cash-strapped Everton for 10yrs, and his
side "did a number" on us, negating our fluent game, and nicking a 1-0
that they're often good for Away from Home.
Don't
forget, they did much the same to screw up Man Utd's season in the 4-4
draw at Old Trafford that ultimately cost SAF's men the title.
Further frustrations were to come against Tottenham and Newcastle.
Away
at the Lane, we were missing, of course, our Tottenham loanee Steven
Caulker, who had been so important to us. I maintain that Emanuel
Adebayor, who got 2 that day in our 3-1 defeat, would not have had such a
profitable time if young SC had been giving him a hard time. Whatever,
over all we couldn't argue about the injustice of defeat, we were
bettered by a truly decent side. Take your medicine, and move on.
This
was also the game when I passed on my ticket to a fellow fan who was
subsequently refused admission because he wasn't me. Shame on that
officious jobsworth of a Steward at THFC and apologies to my good friend
RG. It
will not ever happen again.
Newcastle at
the Liberty were a different animal. You'll remember that Away we'd
ground out a 0-0 draw, and this game could have gone the same way were
it not for Papis Demba Cisse. Signed in the January window, he has
scored worldy after worldy, as Merse would say, and here he got another
couple.
The first felt like theft, of the Van Persie
or Hernandez order, the second would have a claim for goal of the season
had he not scored at least another 3 better in the latter stages of the
season. Both were really breathtaking, so to slump to a 2-0 besting was
miserable, but explainable.
What wasn't was the next
game - Away to those West London arrivistes, QPR, with the ever gracious
Joey Barton, he of the caustic gob, and all. Despite an early Scott
Sinclair chance that might have perked us up, to go down 3-0, as we
ultimately did, was mortifying.
In our previous 3 game
defeated run (our worst of the season), at least we'd been in the game.
At this one, we were not. I was miserable, moribund, defeatist - call it
what you will, as we travelled back to South Wales with our tails
between our legs from a whupping. Ouch.
We simply had to bounce back, surely ? Thank Brendan, we did.
I
recognise now that I'd slipped into that complacent compartment almost
guaranteed to claim one when taking teams for granted in this League.
Because we'd been doing reasonably well, I'd assumed it would continue.
The 4 game losing streak put me out of that.
Thankfully, the team mirrored my mantra - enough, was indeed enough.
We
had 4 games to go, and sat in 14th place on 39pts - surely enough to
keep us up ? Especially as we were still 10pts clear of the bottom 3.
However, we were not mathematically safe, and as many will know, I'm a
believer in the concept of karma, so you'll understand my reluctance to
take things for granted.
Fortunately, next up were the
doomed Blackburn at the Liberty, and, as we'd seen in the Steve
KEAN-OUT snarling of their fans at Ewood Park, they were
not
happy pixies. The game reflected this, and the Swans 3-0 success both
got them back on track, and helped grind the other strugglers down.
The
performance was decent too, and if BR had given the players the
hair-dryer, it had worked. We were genuinely good to watch, again, and
feasted on a festival of football fun.
From that
comfortable cruise against a North West relegatee, we went to what
turned out to be another team who ultimately slipped the leash, and yet
again a comfortable and superior performance in the 1-1 draw away at
Bolton Wdrs Reebok Stadium.
As unlike our earlier FA
Cup defeat to the Trotters as could be possible, this was complete game
control, to be fair, and a performance that really could have brought us
a win but for some bad luck and obdurate Bolton defending.
At
home to Wolves, we got one of the most bizarre games of this ever
surprising season, when BR's decision to experiment with a 3-4-3 led not
only to a wildly open and fluctuating game, but the point that made us
mathematically safe, despite whatever happened elsewhere or to us in the
2 remaining games, which just happened to be against Man Utd and
Liverpool.
The Wolves fixture was a wild card - a game
where we went 3-0 up and could have made it 4-0, only to see Wolves pull
a goal back, then for us to go 4-1 ahead against them. When they came
back to 4-2 we had two great Sigurdsson efforts to make it 5-2, only to
see Dorus de Vries, our ex- keeper, pull off 2 fantastic saves, and
Wolves storm back to 4-4. An out and out thriller, a roller coaster
ride.
It felt almost half hearted to be going to Old
Trafford on the back of that, for an ultimate 2-0 defeat, but at least
we made ourselves felt in the second half, and performed proudly. I paid
my first visit to Old Trafford for 26 yrs and I like to think it won't
be my last either. It would be nice to think I've got a few more visits
there yet to come. I think I have.
Which left us, of
course, with that tremendous day at home to Liverpool, and another
victory against a giant club, 1-0, with all the trimmings of the Elvis
Mania, the dismissal of King Kenny, and a finish on a creditable 47pts
in 11th position.
The last game of this fabulous season
saw the team yet again perform admirably, as they've done throughout
the year, and as is reflected in the table you see below. I took many
photos on this excellent day, and if you want a feel of the atmosphere,
you might get a hint of the
flavour of the day here.
Here's the Premier League
final table, in full.
When you look at the breakdown of our record, it's as follows.
At
Home we went 8-7-4 with 27 for and 18 against. Away was less successful
with a 4-4-11 and 17 v 33 goals. However you look at it, for our first
season in this vicious Division, that's a pretty good effort. Those are
the simple stats - so how did it feel?
Well the first
thing to say is that it felt pretty damn good. I've been a Swansea City
fan for many years, as have many, and I can honestly say that this is
for me our best season yet. We have a proud past, that's fast being
matched by an equally proud present.
I'll inject here
the moment that I'm writing this - I've just watched Chelsea claim the
Champions League trophy against Bayern in their own stadium, and I
imagine they feel much as I do about our fantastic performance in our
first season. Genuine joy, pride, pleasure and a feeling that was one of
the highlights of my watching football life. So, so, rewarding. Hey,
and there's more to come.
I remember, pre-season,
agreeing with Jimmy, my Liberty companion, that if we finished in 17th
place after a dog fight to stay away from the dreaded drop zone, that
would represent a somewhat satisfactory season. How wrong I was.
As it turned out, we played the
best football I've ever seen from a Swansea City side, and yes, I was
around in the 80's too. From the sublime to the ridiculous- who now remembers the last day of
1985, when we were
here. Shudder.
What
was better this year was the way that our team ethic became not only
personally satisfactory, but was strong enough to lay influence on our
League performance, not only winning fans over and becoming for many
their "secondary team" but proving in performance that we were good
enough to both survive and thrive. We did both.
As I
write this approbation, our manager, the excellent Brendan Rodgers, is
flavour of the month, with a link to both the Aston Villa and Liverpool
vacancies, but has indicated that he's not minded to be a part of some
sort of Managers Parade to get the Pool vacancy. Well done him.
He
will, undoubtedly, leave us one day, and he'll go with my best wishes,
as that move is likely to be to a club of both Villa and Pool's stature,
but, that will be 'cause he's
wanted, not just
available. There's a marked difference.
Whatever, he's given us a wonderful season, along with our high achieving team.
I've
found the most pleasant memories to be seeing us play at a level that
I'd been doubtful we Swans were capable of. Say what you like about the
Premier League, what I've understood immediately was the quality
involved. We are witnessing competition in the most exciting competition
in World Football in my eyes. It makes a Season Ticket a must-have, and
hopefully Club developments will mean that it's available to many more
(young, perhaps) Swans fans of the future. Bloody hell, they'll enjoy.
Here's 5 favourite moments from the season, some mentioned already :
1) That Lita goal at Ewood Park at the end of a fantastic period of possession
2) Siggi's goal at Fulham, again from an epic move
3) And again the Iceman, in the snow at West Brom
4) RVP, conjuring, stealing even, a goal from nothing at the Lib
5) Giggs intercepting, 35yds out- 10 secs later Hernandez had "stolen" a goal too.
There are hundreds more memories, All of them searing brightly in my mind's eye.
I'm addicted - to love the Swans.
The technical and tactical ability extant in almost every team is truly stunning. Football League Good :
Premier League Better.
I
wish all of our people the best wishes - and that's each and every one -
Staff, Management, Team and all involved, JackArmy included, my
thank you for a super season.
I happen to think next year can be equally as good, maybe better.
For
myself, I've really enjoyed blogging on behalf of, and in reflection of
our team - and I'm minded to do it all again next year, since it
promises to be so attractive.
Have a great Summer, and let's look forward to saying, once more,
ONWARD, AND UPWARD, SWANSEA CITY.
##
Swansea's highlights on film. Enjoy again.:)
##
A link to the free video on the OS with film of that Liverpool day.
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I shall be blogging, regularly, over the Summer. I'd love you to keep reading - it makes it genuinely worthwhile. Thanks.
