Land of my fathers

Hello all, just thought I would share a few thoughts I had on today's game.

I arrived at Swansea railway station at 1pm and met up with my brother and his wife at the Grand Hotel across the street, half of which is a really good sports bar. Coors at £2.50 a pint and very pleasant staff.

Unbelievably, a couple of policemen came into the pub to speak to us and said they were arranging a bus to collect us from the pub when we were ready, and for £3 return it would take us to the ground and bring us back afterwards. They made sure all the Bolton fans in and around the station got on the bus and nobody was left behind.

The bus took 10 minutes and when we got to the Liberty Stadium we found the away end turnstiles are actually gated off from the rest of the stadium approach, They opened the gates and dropped us literally 10 metres from the away turnstile.

We entered the stadium at about 2.20pm, plenty of time for a couple more pints before making the short walk up one flight of steps into the stand.

The atmosphere was brilliant. I can't remember the last time I went into a football ground and could not see an empty seat. We were on the back row of the away end so perhaps there were some empty seats in front of us but I simply couldn't tell - certainly all the home stands looked packed.

5 minutes before kick off, the Welsh fans started singing Land of my fathers and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I was envious of them as first season PL fans and flying the flag for their country as its first representatives.

After about 10 minutes some young, very drunk lads came and stood at the back, in the aisle. A few minutes later a couple of stewards came and asked them to find seats to stand at. A highlight of the day for me was one of the young lads flinging his arms around the steward and trying to get him to join in on his rendition of 'Only one Nat Lofthouse'.

I can't tell you too much about the actual game you won't have seen on t'internet, I was drunk. We were rubbish. 2-1 would have flattered us. No qualms about the third goal, we HAD to send everyone up.

Personally I was stunned when Ricky was sent off as I hadn't noticed his first half yellow card. I thought Jussi made a fool of himself for the penalty, standing to one side to invite the taker to put it to his right, then the guy just stroked it into the left corner. Nice to be the team that scores the first opposition PL goal at the Liderty Stadium, would have been better still if it had been one of our players on the teamsheet though,

I was disappointed with Coyle for not bringing Robinson on before play could resume after the sending off. This is an example of Coyle letting the game pass him by. Was he going to play out the rest of the game with 3 at the back or Petrov at left back? No. Rapturous applause when Petrov was taken off. He MUST be dropped on recent form.

In spite of their dominance, after what happened to them at Wolves last week when they threw away a two goal lead with 7 minutes to go, when the own goal went in you could tell Swansea became nervous. This was our chance to defy the odds and snatch an undeserved point. We just didn't put them under enough pressure. At this point I would have put K Davies on for Pratley.

I have to say the Welsh fans, stewards and so on were great. After the game, two buses pulled up again right outside the turnstile, and everyone heading to the station crammed on them - the drivers were very laissez-faire about who had tickets and made sure everyone who needed a lift got on. We were back at the station 10 minutes later. Went for a meal and got the 7pm train to Cardiff for first part of my journey home. Spent the hour pleasantly chatting to some very nice 30something Welsh slappers dressed up as naughty witches. The group of lads I had encountered at the back of the stand were also on the train, they had been kicked off the club coaches for being too drunk.