Calm down!!

Swansea approach their crunch game tomorrow with second place Norwich City in a strange situation. For the first time, we are experiencing what Sir Alex Ferguson aptly named "squeaky bum time" and one can't help but wonder just how the players, fans and club as a whole will react to the pressure of potentially being just a few games from the richest prize in football.

At home, Swansea seem fairly solid, not losing since early February and drawing only one of those games. It is away from home that Swansea's problems seem to be developing once again, as they had at the very start of the season. They have lost their last three away matches, including games against Preston and Scunthorpe, both of whom certainly look favourites to be relegated this season.

The match against Norwich has been billed as every part of the "six pointer" by the media, both local and national and it seems that some supporters and possibly players are beginning to get nervy. From one point of view I can see why, Norwich have opened a four point lead over Swansea over the last three games or so and the dream looks in danger of slipping away into a playoff nightmare.

The alternative view of course if that Swansea still have four home matches in their run-in, including being at home on the final day of the season against troubled Sheffield United. With our afore-mentioned good home form, this should give us a good springboard to compete for that last automatic promotion place.

I have to say that I am personally not even slightly nervous about Swansea's run in and all the possible twists and turns that it could bring. I put this down to living through the hell that was the 2002-2003 season and that final match against Hull City at the Vetch Field. For those that aren't aware, only a win on the final day of the season preserved Swansea's league status that season, a danger that was in my opinion far more important to the history of the club than the possible promotion to the Premier League that they currently chase could ever be.

That was the real time to feel the tension, to really feel the strain of football. Jobs, a football club and a whole community threatened to be obliterated that day. The fear was very real, if we were to leave the football league that day, the feeling very much was that we would not return. That team of players and staff, those fans and that community stepped up to the plate, dealt with the ultimate pressure that football can bring and emerged more than victorious. We are still reeling from the euphoria of that final Hull match. We've used that experience as the fuel to push us on to promotion from the fourth tier, to the our new home, then from the third tier and to challenge at the very top of the second tier of English football.

This current season and the excitement it's brought for me has been simply incredible. These were someone else's dreams back in 2003, staring down the barrel of extinction as a club. We were so low that entertaining such thoughts were pointless and just foolish. Having been born after the great days of the Toshack era, I have known nothing but disappointing campaign after disappointing campaign with the odd sparkle here and there of what this club could achieve with the right amount of pushing. The club is pushing now better than it ever could have imagined in the past and the frightening thought is, it could still be so much better.

This is not the time to feel pressure for fans, players and the club alike. We left that behind in 2003. We said collectively that day that we will do what it takes for this club to go as far as it can go. This is the reason that we watch and play football, to strive for success. Yes, it doesn't always pay off, sometimes even when you really deserve it but we will be the stronger for it, success or no success.

I'm sure the players will have been briefed extensively by the considerable presence of those who lived that awful season with us. Seven years later, Alan Tate, Leon Britton and Alan Curtis at least are still there drumming the lessons learned that season in and I'm sure if they can't get through to their colleagues then James Thomas would. He really could show some players how to handle pressure. I can't think of many other players who could score two penalties in a match of that magnitude for the club that he supported from his childhood and then have the audacity to chip the goalkeeper from 25 yards for his hat-trick!

If you feel the pressure against Norwich or at any time during this run in, think back to 2003. Think back to that defeat against Carlisle at the Vetch and that feeling in the pit of your stomach after that game. If you weren't at these games, like Carlisle at home, away at Rochdale in the penultimate match of the season or at the great escape against Hull in 2003, research it before this run in takes hold. Feel the real tension of those dark days and you'll be able to come out after and sing the side home this season and see it for what it really is, just another bit of progress and one hell of a ride!


A link to some short highlights of that Swansea and Hull game in 2003:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIkFuYD9Q2g&feature=related

The End of The Vetch Field

Over the past few weeks, work has finally begun on demolishing Swansea City’s former home. The drawn out saga surrounding the use of the land is not of any real interest to me and most Swansea supporters, the only concern is how this wonderful old ground has been treated. For more than five years it has stood idle, awaiting its inevitable fate. This three month dismantling period will be wrenching for me and every other Swansea supporter.

My first visit to The Vetch Field came at the age of six for a League Cup match against Port Vale during the mid nineties. It was a Tuesday night match on a fairly normal Swansea night, which meant rain and wind battering the coast and nearly all those at the ground. Despite the weather and dilapidated state of the stadium, that night I was bitten by not only the bug for watching live football but more importantly for the ground, the atmosphere and something which is not too often associated with football, the humour. Following that taster, my next match was a home match against Cardiff. I can’t help but think that having this kind of derby experience so early on really helped to cement my instant taking to the whole experience!

I'm not often able to vividly recall events from my childhood if I'm honest, but I remember every early visit nearly perfectly. Looking around the North Bank during these matches I couldn't help but think, “does the noise ever stop?” The singing, sights, sounds and more than anything, passion I felt from those around me was something I’d certainly not seen before as a child and definitely not found since, despite searching for it everywhere. I think I knew from very early on my association with the ground would be a long one. In the fifteen or so years of going to any game that I could, I saw promotions, relegation, titles and even a cup final win.

The ground was situated less than two minutes walk from Swansea City centre and consisted of four completely separate and bizarrely different stands from that each told a story from various eras in the club’s history. The North Bank was the terraced main stand holding the bulk of the support, in both the numeral and vocal sense and The East Stand was redeveloped in the 1970’s into the most unusual double tiered stand. The centre stand was the oldest and smallest stand while the West stand housed the away support and was a conversion from the old two tiered wooden stand that it had been before safety regulations forced the change.

The North Bank

The East Stand - note the floodlight!

It’s difficult to explain just why you fall in love with a football ground, just what it is that makes it a home for the fans or what makes some just a place where a team plays football. Most clubs outside of the largest five or six in England and Wales are locally based and the more grounds I have visited and the more fans I have spoken to, the more I believe it has to do with the sense of community that you can feel more intensely than in any other walk of life. What we had at The Vetch was not only an arena for the Swansea community to congregate, but somewhere to belong, enjoy ourselves, compete with the opposition vocally and on the pitch and most importantly to vocally express our Welsh passion.

When the ground was created (built seems to be the wrong word) not much was taken into consideration other than the very simplest thoughts, like having a spot for supporters to watch the game or a roof to keep them dry. What they didn’t know was in the North Bank, they had created a standing area where everyone was close to the pitch at all times and had put a roof over their heads so perfectly sculpted to creating an atmosphere that it added an extra dimension for the team each and every game. The atmosphere and feel of the ground was definitely unique and appreciated by fans and players alike, as outlined recently by Swansea legend Alan Curtis:

“It is obviously somewhere I hold with great affection. Forgetting football for a minute, I spent 30 years of my life at the Vetch. To a lot of people it was a second home. There are so many special memories held there, it was a funny shaped ground, the stands didn’t really match, but it clicked together somehow and created not just a hostile atmosphere for away teams but a great amount of warmth as well.”

The characteristics that I fell in love with at The Vetch Field are all so lacking in new stadia, including The Liberty Stadium, Swansea’s new home. Of course there are benefits, such as better facilities and views of the playing area, but frankly, I’d take the inadequate facilities and restricted views every day. I can honestly and happily say that none of these would have had me returning to the ground each and every week and owning a season ticket for 10 seasons straight. Football is nothing without a crowd there to make it worth watching and The Vetch was one of the most character filled and atmospheric places in which I’ve ever experienced not just football but any crowd at all.

After seeing most of my beloved North Bank disappear in just one week, the one thought that keeps swimming around my head is that despite the benefits of having a new ground, it feels like a massive mistake to have left a club’s spiritual home. It kills me to think that Swansea's new generations of fans in years to come will have to watch games sitting in near silence in a bland, characterless concrete bowl. I’d give anything to go back but the truth is that we have to concentrate on making the Liberty Stadium a real home.