It Gets Worse - Jacks Gain Promotion

Number 2 in Wales?
By Chris O'Brien
May 11 2005

Are we still Wales' Number One? The sight of 5,000 Jacks invading the pitch at Gigg Lane was not pleasant, with Swansea City earning promotion to Football League One. With things looking bleak at Ninian Park, Swansea City have laid the foundations for a bright future.

With Cardiff City facing a summer of turmoil, things are looking all to rosy for our neighbours from West Wales. Under the leadership of former QPR assistant boss Kenny Jacket, the Jacks have secured promotion to Football League One, winning their final game of the season at Gigg Lane to finish the 3rd in the table.

Almost 5,000 Jacks made the journey to Bury, and it brought back memories of a similar away following the Bluebirds took to Scunthorpe. The basement title was achieved on that memorable last day fixture in 1993. City achieved a league and cup double that season, winning the Welsh Cup at the National Stadium, and the Swans will be hoping they can tie up a double as fans bid farewell to the Vetch Field. Wrexham visit Swansea in the FAW Premier Cup final on Wednesday night in a North/South derby.

Debts of £30million have been confirmed at Ninian Park, and the club came painfully close to relegation this term. A mass exodus of playing staff is expected prior to next term and the bookmakers are already tipping Lennie Lawrence's men to have another torrid time next season. Sam Hammam's honeymoon period is well and truly over, and with the new ground project more of a pantomime than a basis for the future, drastic changes are needed.

Meanwhile, Swansea's final game at the Vetch Field will mark the dawn of a new era for the Jacks. Season ticket sales are expected to flourish with a new ground 'The White Rock' now complete. The Swans will move in for pre-season. Tears will be shed across West Wales when the bulldozers move in on the North Bank, but the new 20,000 all-seater ground could lay the foundations for Jackett's men to continue their march up the Football League. It's all rather depressing. Are our arch-rivals set to return to their glory days of the 1980's?

I won't pretend I take any pleasure in Swansea City's rise. Sam Hammam's tedious Welsh nationalism stance is wearing thin, but I never caught onto his hype of a 'United Wales' on the football front. Cardiff and Swansea have always been bitter rivals, and there is nothing wrong with that. I found a recent news article on the club's official web-site wishing Swansea good luck and lavishing their badge on the home page rather stomach churning. Football rivalries are a simply part of the game, and I'd rather chant 'Stand up if you hate Swansea' than the pathetic dirge about Harold Shipman and killing the Queen that a minority of supporters treat us to every week.

Cardiff have enjoyed their time in the spotlight. Hammam's arrival has seen Cardiff achieve two promotions and take a lions share of media attention across Wales. Swans and Robins fans have cringed with blue jerseys dominating the back pages of the Welsh press. Sad to say, with Wrexham having enjoyed the title for most of the 90's, and the Bluebirds priding themselves as the Principality's finest for half a decade, is it the Jacks' turn to call themselves 'the Pride of Wales'?

Swansea fans pack Gigg Lane as a first-half strike secures promotion.
Congratulations, but I can't help be bitter!