By Des Eynon

1. By Desmond Eynon
THE VETCH FIELD
1/8/1912-31/5/2005
THE LIBERTY STADIUM
23/7/2005 – Now
An introduction to Swansea City AFC.
It all started back in 1912 when the “Vetch” rose from land owned by Swansea Gas Light
CO. The name “Vetch” comes from a plant that grew wild there.
In 1912 “Swansea Town AFC” was formed and took up residence in direct opposition to
the dominant “Swansea RFU”, adopting the same all white strip.
“The Swans” were admitted to the second division of the Southern League. They won
promotion just before the war and became a founder member of Division Three in1920
when the Southern League was incorporated into the Football League.
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2. Welcome to the Rollercoaster world of Swansea City AFC.
They were promoted to the second division in 1925 as Champions of division Three South.
The club fared well in its debut season finishing 5th with a memorable run in the FA cup
losing 3-0 in the semi final to Bolton Wanderers.
The clubs fortunes went into decline, but they managed to keep their 2nd Div. status for the
next 16 Seasons .They also became the first Welsh Club in European Competition,( via
The Welsh Cup) playing East German club Motor Jena and losing 5-1.
They reached the semi- final of the FA Cup losing to Preston North End 2-1, both games
being played in 1964. An otherwise poor season, resulting in relegation to Division Three
,two years later to Division Four.
Swansea Town became Swansea City in1969/1970 Season and were promoted back to
Division Three. Three years later they finished at the bottom of Division Four and in those
days you needed to apply to the Football League for re- election. Harry Griffiths took the
reins in 77/78 season and despite a promising start they fell away and he resigned leaving
the door open for the legendary John Toshack.
John Toshack’s Golden Years
John Toshack took over at the age of 28 as player-manager, the youngest manager in the
Football League with Harry Griffiths as his assistant. This started the most amazing period
in the clubs history climbing through all four divisions to the top of division one.
Harry Griffiths died of a heart attack on 25/4/78 just before the Scunthorpe game. This
tragedy lifted the team on to back to back promotions to the Second Division for the first
time in 14 years. Toshack used his Liverpool connections to the full. He recruited players
such as Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan Phil Boarsma Colin Irwin (club record fee at the time
£340,000), Ray Kennedy and more – all senior professionals, with former Liverpool
manager Bill Shankly in the background as mentor to Tosh.
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3. After consolidation in the 2nd Division they won promotion to the top tier with a 3-1 win at
Preston on 2/5/81, the goals coming from Tommy Craig and local boys Leighton James
and Jeremy Charles (son of Welsh legend Mel Charles, nephew of the great John Charles).
The Swans got off to a flying start with a stunning 5-1 win over Leeds Utd., new boy Bob
Latchford getting a hat trick. After some memorable victories over the “big” clubs they
finished the season in 6th position. At one time they had 7 players in the welsh team.
On the way back down
The second season in Division One led to a disastrous slide down the table and after two
consecutive relegations John Toshack was sacked.
By 1985 the club now had serious money problems and was fighting for its life. After a trip
to the High Court facing a winding up order in December ‘85, they were saved by local
businessman Doug Sharpe. The Swan’s were relegated to the 4th Division in ’86 and back
where they started eight years earlier with John Toshack.
From 1986 to2001, after many highs, lows and changes of management, the club was sold
to Mike Lewis for the princely sum of £1 causing concern amongst the fans. He sold to an
Australian consortium led by the infamous Tony Petty. Seven players were sacked and
eight contracts were torn up. A rival consortium led by former player Mel Nurse
eventually bought out the Petty group in January 2002.This crisis led to the formation of
The Swansea City Supporters Trust, safeguarding the clubs future. The Swans avoided
dropping out of the Football League on the last day of the season, under the guidance of
Brian Flynn and a superb hat trick by James Thomas.
Kenny Jacket took over from Flynn and achieved promotion to League One. The last game
at the Vetch was against Wrexham in the final FAW Trophy winning 2-1.
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4. The New Stadium
Named The Liberty Stadium after the sponsors, opened 2005/06 season with a capacity of
20,532.
They missed out in the Playoffs at the Millennium Stadium losing the penalty shootout to
Barnsley. They won Football League Trophy beating Carlisle Utd.: 2-1 and The FAW
Trophy for the second year running. They made the headlines beating Premiership side
Sheffield Utd.: 3-0 in the FA Cup.
Kenny Jacket leaves and former player Roberto Martinez surprisingly returns as Manager
declaring his love for the club.2007/2008 off to great start winning promotion to
Championship with his eye-catching Spanish brand of football. Summer 2009, Martinez
leaves for Premiership with Wigan Athletic taking many of the staff and players with him.
Enter Paulo Sousa the brilliant Portuguese player with little managerial experience.
Defence minded, finishing the season with record clean sheets in seventh place. He left in
season 2009/2010 for Leicester City leaving the door open for Brendan Rogers the former
Watford and Reading manager. With a couple of major signings the Swans are flying and
hopeful of promotion this season.
Current Positions
pos name P W D L F A Gd Pts
1 QPR 39 22 13 4 63 23 40 79
2 Norwich city 39 19 13 7 68 47 21 70
3 Cardiff City 39 19 9 11 64 47 17 66
4 Swansea City 39 20 6 13 54 38 16 66
5 Leeds United 39 17 13 9 73 61 12 64
6 Reading 39 16 15 8 64 43 21 63
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5. Survey on end of season finish
I did a survey on the final positions and I was surprised how many surveyed people
answered that they had no idea.
Swans Season Prediction
No idea 12
Miss out 0
Play-offs 4
Automatic 5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Sources
http://www.scfc.co.uk/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swansea_City_A.F.C.
Photo by Mr Numb http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-numb/3647463610/
Photo by Nigel Davies
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Morfa_Stadium_-
_geograph.org.uk_-_32243.jpg
Swansea City Football Club & FLPTV Ltd.
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