From Ammanford, the Swans are my local professional team. Most of my family & friends support SCFC. ST holder every season except one since 2001.
why do i support Swansea? i am not Welsh, never seen the Swans live (2013 i hope), born in Scotland, now in Australia, for some reason always had a thing for the Swans as a wee boy, i remember as a kid all the lads would have a shoot out league, i was always Swansea, everyone else wanted to be rangers, celtic, hibs etc, sad aint it
because they got promoted and because my faveorite player plays for them frank nouble and i like jermaine easter aswel
From Swansea. My Dad first took me to the vetch when I was 7 (top tier of west stand , and banging my feet on the SOLID ? and STURDY? wooden benches). And have been a supporter since , moving stands as you get older as you do - West , East , then North bank. Many years have past since then (now WELL into my forties), and now live in Porthcawl (hence "nottage Jack") , but STILL a STH.
Started watching the swans when I went to comprehensive in 1986 my dad was rugby mad so used to go with a school friend who lived by my nan. My gran used to give me and my bother 20p pocket money every saturday and i used to save it over the summer. I would use it to get me a bus from penlan and a ticket into the vetch. So when I could afford it I would watch the swans. Followed them ever since and now living in Pembs winding people up in the local village pub where they call me Jack I LUVS IT!!!
I must be one of the few (5% or less?) English fans of the club. Born in Bedford, which by a nice coincidence, is also the birthplace of team captain (for now!) of Garry Monk. Most of the boys at primary school followed London clubs - the capital being 50 miles to the south - and I was no exception. Ashamed to say that as a 10 yr old I was a Chelsea "fan" of sorts. Round the age of 13/14 me and a bunch of school mates used to go down to Luton (God save 'em), who were in Div 1 at the time, and were the nearest League club to Bedford at that time (since superseded by MK Dons). Mid 70s and hooliganism was rife. Every other weekend there were rucks and disturbances in Luton. As a youngster this was frightening and exciting in equal measure. Adrenaline rush stuff. I came to Swansea in 1979 to go to Uni. when I was 18, by which time I'd completely lost interest in football...until, that is, I got a bus into town on November 10 of that year and was surprised to see a huge number of coppers around the Quadrant/bus station. It was a typical gloomy, grey, mild, wet, autumn Swansea day, with that fine rain just hanging in the air, slowly soaking everything. The police were trying to round up a group of blokes in red and white striped shirts. Assumed they were Stoke or Southampton. Turned out to be Sunderland. The old adrenalin kicked in and I ended up in the Vetch - didn't even know it's name then - and that was it: been a fan for 33 years. Don't get any stick in my home town. The opposite, in fact. Most people are respectful, even slightly envious, I sometimes think, of my allegiance. Never had any grief off Jacks either - except briefly in Nottingham a couple of years ago, where some less desirable Swans fans were having a brawl, heard my accent, and assumed I was a Forest fan. Luckily for me I've got the club crest on my right arm so nothing unpleasant occurred.
I am very familiar with those places, brings back a lot of happy memories as a kid and into my teens had a lot of good friends who i have not seen for many years, a good friend of mine was Phil Fisher later of Ammanford Town and Ammanford Cricket, another was Alan Williams who used to live next door to Williams the milk grocer shop at the foot of tyr dail by the childrens home and there was Phil Roach who used to captain Ammanford Cricket team . sadly i have not been back for many years, but i may go over and have a stroll i bet the place has changed a great deal since my last time there. i still have family in new rd by the old delanare, and bishop road if i remember right was in parcyrhun, i remember spending a small fortune in don chiswells sports shop opposite the the old coop store in the town centre happy days
I remember the old grocer/milk shop, but wether it was run by Mr Williams is another thing. I still visit now and again as I have family, but I have bad memories from down there, hence why I now live in Mid-Wales. It has changed though. Considerably.
The other post from me was a joke if you didn't realise, but my actual story is as follows. I always followed the Swans as a youngster, although my Dad was a Man Utd fan (Glory Supporter) I remember going to the vetch only once, I'm only 15 now so I was pretty young at the time and don't remember anything specific. I went to my first game at the Liberty in 2005 when we played Blackpool and won 3-2, They've been my first team ever since, although I did go to see Man Utd vs Wigan in 2006! That year we got to the Play Off final and I was devestated when we lost, but it's been a great 6 years as a Swans fan and recently my Brother and Freidds have been getting more involved in the Swans which is great
Jackash i remember the old milkman and his wife ran the shop now it was around the early to mid seventies i may have their names wrong due to the time factor, sorry to hear that you had a bad time there