Shrewsbury Town boss Gary Peters has poured scorn on suggestions that Swansea City might be lining up a bid for midfielder Jamie Tolley.

The 22-year-old Ludlow-born player, who is currently on a team holiday in Tenerife, is reportedly one of a number of young players being chased by newly-promoted Swansea as they prepare for life in their new White Rock stadium.

Their chairman Huw Jenkins admits the talented midfielder is one name they are looking at as as a possibility for the coming League One campaign.

He said: "Tolley is one of a clutch of players under 24 that Swansea have been offered recently."

Peters is quick to dismiss the word "offered", insisting they have not had any contact with anyone at Swansea. And he believes this could be the result of agents touting players around.

"We've heard nothing at all so I haven't got a clue on this one," he stated."

"It doesn't worry me because he is still under contract here and if they really are interested then they will have to deal with me eventually. Everything at this club now goes through me."
Tolley was the subject of a £10,000 bid from Chester recently, a figure laughed off by Peters at the time as "comical".

FORMER England boss Graham Taylor believes a sackful of grovelling letters should be winging their way to Swansea City by now.

And the name the apologies should all be addressed to is Kenny Jackett.

The dust has barely settled on Swansea City's triumphant promotion push.

Eight days ago, Jackett's men claimed their place in League One for next term with a tense final day victory at Bury to deliver on the promise his side has shown for most of the season.

It all seems a far cry from his early days at the Vetch when the head of the former Wales international was demanded on a plate by a section of the disaffected Swansea faithful.

Just two wins from his first 12 games after replacing Brian Flynn in April, a reluctance to use star striker Lee Trundle early on and his perceived preference for a direct approach on the pitch saw the new-boy in town scorned from the terraces.

But after winning over the boo-boys and more importantly winning promotion, his former manager and mentor at Watford believes Jackett now also deserves to be winning plenty of plaudits for his work to date.

Taylor must rate as one of the management world's foremost authorities on abuse from the terraces and sports pages having been pilloried during his three-year spell at the FA. And the man who was once turned into a turnip by the red tops admitted: "I was very concerned when Kenny first went to Swansea.

"He didn't get too much support at the beginning and there were former players queuing up to criticise everything about him.

"They were doing him a great disservice in my opinion and now that has been proven.

"He's had to come through all of that and even though he knew it wasn't going to be easy, I'm delighted for what he has achieved in his first season. It's not bad at all, is it?

"As someone who is in the media myself now I understand that you have to be critical at times but some of it with Kenny went right over the top.

"I think there are a few people out there and ex-players in particular who now owe Kenny an apology.

"It would be nice to think he would get one but I doubt it somehow."

Taylor knows you need a hide like a rhino to survive as a manager.

The abuse he received during his 38-game tenure at Lancaster Gate would have destroyed those of a weak constitution.

But he survived the unrelenting spotlight that comes with the most scrutinised job in the game and believes his former protege has the necessary traits to make a name for himself in management.

"I've known Kenny Jackett for a long time as I signed him as an apprentice," said Taylor.

"He was one of my first back in 1978/9.

"He always worked very hard as a player and at Watford he was always a team man.

"When he played everyone always talked about people like John Barnes or Luther Blissett.

"People forget it was Kenny who always gave them the ball to give them the chance to look good.

"He was underestimated as a player because there were always more charismatic players in the side.

"But he has taken the same excellent attitude he had as a player into his coaching and management career.

"He has spent time gaining all the qualifications and gone through all the necessary steps having started at the very bottom.

"It is hard to say whether in the beginning I thought he would go into management.

"I'd left the club before his playing career came to an end.

"But by the time I came back he was youth team coach and later first team coach.

"From my time working with him as a coach at Watford I could see he had the makings to be successful.

"He takes things very seriously and it shows and I'm very, very pleased for him."

Jackett's renowned seriousness was in evidence at Gigg Lane last Saturday as police officers frog-marched Swans goalkeeper Willy Gueret out of the ground in handcuffs.

In some of the most bizarre scenes ever witnessed at a British football ground the Frenchman was bundled into a police van, finger-printed and later thrown into a cell after allegedly swearing at an officer.

Jackett tried and failed to get Gueret released at the ground but lost his temper himself in a sight rarely seen outside of the Swansea dressing room.

But another of his ex-bosses, Ian Holloway, revealed that his former right-hand-man at QPR also has a lighter side to his personality which is often camouflaged from the public.

"I rang Kenny straight after they won promotion and he said 'I'm waiting to get my goalkeeper out of jail'," said Holloway.

"He said it was his proudest moment because it took 16 coppers to get the lad into the back of the truck."

Joking aside though, Holloway insists Swansea have got themselves a tremendous manager.

Holloway witnessed at first hand the rough ride Jackett was receiving from City fans when their two clubs clashed in the Carling Cup last August.

Nine months later and the club is ready to offer Jackett a new deal.

"I think Kenny Jackett is fantastic," said Holloway.

"I knew he would be fantastic, what a fella.

"I told Swansea fans he would be great if you shut up and give him a chance and they did.

"I wonder what they think about him at the moment.

"He's dedicated and no matter what the budget he'll keep doing the right things."

It remains to be seen where that will take Swansea City or for that matter Kenny Jackett.

IT was a season in which everyone was entitled to regard themselves as a winner.

After four grim seasons languishing among the Rochdales and the Bostons of this world, Swansea City finally climbed out of the Football League's bottom division.

Instead of trips to such footballing backwaters as Spotland and York Street, the Swans are licking their lips at the prospect of visiting grander soccer venues like the City Ground in Nottingham and Valley Parade in Bradford.

Rewind to the end of last August, however, and few people were convinced there would be cause to crack open any champagne come the end of the season.

A 2-0 opening-day home defeat against Northampton - Kenny Jackett's fifth league loss in his first seven matches in charge - hardly filled Swans followers with unbridled optimism. And by the end of the month there was growing unrest among supporters as Jackett's side managed just one win from their opening four league games.

But then came the turning point. The Swans eked out a 1-0 win at Cambridge... and didn't look back. They won five of their next eight league matches - a sequence that included just one defeat, away to promotion rivals Yeovil.

By the time they'd beaten lowly Rushden and Diamonds 1-0 at the Vetch in late September, the Swans had made their way into the automatic promotion zone.

And it was there that they stayed for most of the next five months, even spending a big chunk of October at the top of the table as a they ground out one 1-0 victory after another.

Come the festive period and the Swans finally found their goal-scoring touch, smashing in 14 goals in five games, including a 5-1 walloping of Kidderminster.

League One faded from Swansea's view as they hit a sticky patch through February and early March, picking up just one win in nine matches and dropping four points adrift of the top three.

But Jackett never lost hope the Swans could still go straight up - and his confidence was rewarded as they snatched third place with a dramatic last-day 1-0 win at Bury, their sixth victory in eight nerve-jangling matches.

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Winners and losers in Swans' year of triumph Previous 1 2




THE WINNERS

KENNY JACKETT

'Kenny who?' was the question many asked when he took over in April 2004. Not anymore. The former Wales international won over the Vetch faithful after guiding Swansea to promotion in his first full season in charge. Proved he's got a good eye for a player and seems to get best out of people. A shrewd operator who'll relish tackling League One.

WILLY GUERET

Exceeded most people's expectations after filling the gloves of Swans legend Roger Freestone with aplomb. Big French goalkeeper was a rock throughout the season, making countless crucial saves, missing just two league games... and earning cult status by getting arrested at Bury.

SAM RICKETTS

Proved a huge hit at the Vetch after Kenny Jackett plucked him from non-league obscurity at Telford last summer. Just as dependable in either full-back position, the new Wales international was strong defensively and determined in attack. Kept more experienced Andy Gurney on the sidelines.

GARRY MONK

An outstanding season despite the various transgressions that saw him sent off three times and miss 10 games through suspension. Totally dependable and hardly ever crumbled under pressure. His calm reading of the game proved invaluable and he'll shine at higher level.

IZZY IRIEKPEN

Surprised a lot of people by flourishing under Jackett and holding down a regular spot in the side. The ball-playing centre-half got better as the season went on, maturing under the wing of Monk and looking much less prone to mistakes than when he first arrived from West Ham.

KEVIN AUSTIN

Known as 'The Doorman' and seldom has a nickname been so apt. The muscular left-back rarely let anything get past him and proved equally stubborn on the occasions he was switched to central defence. At 32, though, League One is likely to be a more testing environment.

KRIS O'LEARY

Won Swansea's player of the season award and the unswerving support of his manager after successfully switching from the centre of defence to central midfield. The Port Talbot product thrived as a no-nonsense midfield enforcer and can look forward to another full season.

ADRIAN FORBES

Often struggled to live up to his billing as Swansea's top 2004 signing, but, though his work-rate was always impressive, his higher-league pedigree finally shone through when he scored two of the most important goals in the club's history - the goals that secured a League One place.

LEE TRUNDLE

Where would Swansea have been without their talismanic leading scorer? Avoided the 'second season syndrome' as he improved on his first year at the Vetch with 22 league goals and upped his all-round work rate for others. To think there were was talk Jackett tried to sell him last summer.

Swansea midfielder Kristian O'Leary has been offered a new deal
Swansea City manager Kenny Jackett is considering putting some of his under-contract players up for sale.
"I will take my time to make sure I don't make any mistakes," said Jackett, who is determined not to fall straight back down to League Two next season.

"I will have to speak to one or two individuals before deciding if anyone goes on the transfer list."

Jackett will offer new deals to Leon Britton, Brian Murphy, Kevin Austin, Izzy Iriekpen and Kristian O'Leary.

Martin Devaney said there were "others who want me" after revealing he has held talks with Swansea City.

The Cheltenham Town midfielder confirmed he had spoken to Swansea, who have just been promoted to Coca-Cola League One. The 24-year-old, who can play on the left or right side of midfield, said it did not mean that he was joining the Welsh club managed by former Watford player Kenny Jackett.

Devaney, whose contract at Cheltenham runs out at the end of June, said he was still keeping his options open.

"Basically, I'm just waiting for clubs to get back to me. There are others who want me," Devaney (pictured) said.

"It's a waiting game. Every day is a different day and other clubs come out of the woodwork.

"I'm leaving it to my agent. It's in his hands, but I hope to have it all wrapped up in the next couple of days."

Manager Ward complimented Jackett for the courtesy he showed by asking to speak to Devaney, but said nobody else had approached him about the Cheltenham-born player.

Devaney, who has been with Cheltenham for all six of their seasons in the Football League, was placed on the transfer list in January after rejecting Cheltenham's offer of a two-year contract. A second offer was made at the terms he requested, but was also rejected.

He has had the right to speak to other clubs since the turn of the year because he is a free agent in the summer.

He turned down a move to League Two champions Yeovil Town on transfer deadline day in March and was linked with a move to Championship club Burnley, who are managed by former Cheltenham boss Steve Cotterill.

Ward is hoping to keep 17-year-old trial players Scott Musgrove and Sothsene Yao at Whaddon Road.

He has told a third, Davion Hamilton, that he will not be offering him a deal.

Musgrove and Yao have completed two years of their three-year scholarships with Stoke City and West Ham United respectively.

Both have been released by their clubs.

"I'll be talking to them in the next few days with a view to inviting them back," Ward said.

"They both have their third year's scholarship to go and we could invite them to join ours.

"I liked them both well enough when they played for our reserves to see how it goes."

Musgrove and Yao are both midfield players and Ward said: "We've had a look at them and we think there is a future for them. We're not looking at the first team yet."

Ward has had further contract talks with striker Kayode Odejayi and is about to talk again to fellow forward Damian Spencer.

"Every time I speak to them we get closer. There's nothing sinister, everything's fine, and I expect contract agreements soon.

"I don't pressure them and it's not always about money."

As football transfer prices went from hundreds of thousands pounds to those of the multi-million kind, Swansea City struggled to keep their heads above water. However, since the inauguration of the FA Premier League back in 1992, the glory days are slowly returning to the club.

Last weekend Swansea secured promotion from the Football League's basement and on Wednesday night they lifted the FAW Premier Cup.

These successes see the start of a new era for the Jacks as they move from their 93-year-old home at the Vetch Field to a brand spanking new stadium at Morfa.

In those 13 years which have past, the Premier League has gone from strength to strength, while Swansea have endured something of a rollercoaster ride.

Swansea fan and internet columnist Gareth Phillips, a regular at the grand Old Lady since 1968, has chronicled the club's highs and lows during the past 13 years in his book called Fan's Eye City.

The book looks at the proud history of all those who have passed through the Vetch to the glory days of two Wembley finals as well as the Third Division championship in 2000.

However, there have been some incredible lows during the past 13 years.

The club almost lost their Football League existence in 2003, while power struggles in the boardroom almost saw the name Swansea City disappear from the footballing map altogether.

Phillips not only looks at on-the-pitch activities, but also the birth of the Swansea City Supporters' Trust and the ousting of former chairman Tony Petty.

The author from Llanelli, who saw his first Swansea game back in 1968, is donating all profits from Fan's Eye City to the club's supporters' trust.

It is available from the Swansea City Club Shop and can be ordered from Waterstones, WH Smith and Sportspages, Uplands Bookshop (Swansea) priced £12.95.

Kristian O'Leary hopes to sign a new Swansea City contract in the next week. This season's player of the year is one of five senior figures in Kenny Jackett's squad whose current agreements expire next month.

But O'Leary is keen to commit to the club he has played for since boyhood, with a fresh two-year agreement seemingly on the cards.

''There have been some negotiations, but I hope to start talking properly as soon as possible now the season is over,'' O'Leary said.

''I guess it'll be the start of next week and hopefully everything will be sorted out pretty quickly.

''This season has been fantastic for me and everybody knows I'm keen to stay.

''There's no reason why I'd want to go anywhere else and besides, I'm desperate to run out and play at the new stadium.''

Port Talbot product O'Leary, signed by Frank Burrows after leaving school in 1995, is due a testimonial next term.

''That's something we'll have to discuss as well, so negotiations may take a little longer than usual,'' he added, ''but to have a testimonial would be fantastic for me."

As well as O'Leary, Jackett is keen to retain Leon Britton, Izzy Iriekpen, Kevin Austin and Brian Murphy as he prepares for life in League One.

There will be a handful of fresh faces, too, with top target Martin Devaney revealing today that Swansea are not the only club chasing his signature.

The Cheltenham winger confirmed transfer talks had begun with Jackett, but added: ''There are others who want me.

''It's a waiting game. Every day is a different day and other clubs come out of the woodwork.

''I'm leaving it to my agent. It's in his hands, but I hope to have it all wrapped up in the next couple of days.''

Devaney, 24, is available on a Bosman free after rejecting a new two-year contract at Whaddon Road.

He attracted interest from Championship side Burnley in the spring and rejected a move to Yeovil on transfer deadline day in March.

Swansea, meanwhile, have saluted their supporters for the pivotal role they played in the club's successful push for promotion as well as a first ever FAW Premier Cup triumph.

''We want to thank them all," said director David Morgan.

''They were superb at Bury and they said farewell to the Vetch in style on Wednesday.

''That was a night that will stick in people's minds forever.''

Sam Ricketts is hoping a summer of rest will cure his nagging injury problems in time for Swansea City's big kick-off in League One. Swansea's Welsh international defender has pulled out of John Toshack's squad for a training camp in Spain next week on doctor's orders.

Ricketts has been carrying a combination of groin and stomach problems for the last third of this season and admits he is disappointed to be missing Wales's trip to San Sebastian.

But he said: ''I need to spend six weeks doing absolutely nothing.

''I'm allowed to go on holiday, but I can't do any sort of training so the Wales camp is out of the question.

''That's why I missed the FAW Premier Cup final.

''I've been feeling pain around the pelvis area for the last couple of months and I've got to rest so that the muscles can get back into line.

''To be honest it has eased a bit in the last couple of weeks, but I need to do this in the hope that I don't end up having to have an operation.''

Capped three times by Toshack, Ricketts aims to add to his tally when Wales play at Swansea's new 20,000-capacity home in August, then when England come to Cardiff for a World Cup qualifier in September.

''It's been a long season, but I'm disappointed not to be going away with Wales because that's the sort of thing you look forward to,'' he added.

''As a player you want to do everything you can, but there's nothing I can do in this situation.''

A spectator as Wrexham were seen off on Wednesday night, the former Telford defender at least played his part in last weekend's dramatic promotion-clinching win at Bury.

''It's been a cracking end to the season for us," he said.

''We had a bit of luck with Southend drawing at Grimsby, but maybe we deserved that since we were in the top three for most of the year.

''Wrexham just put the icing on the cake. The lads did really well to come back after going a goal behind and it's great to finish on a high note at the Vetch.

''It's a case of roll on next season now.''

Midfielder John Oster has also dropped out of a Wales squad already depleted by injuries and unavailability.

Wrexham duo Mark Jones and Chris Llewellyn - from Morriston - have been called up.

Hopes of a move to Swansea City have faded for Cheltenham Town's out-of-contract midfielder Martin Devaney. Kenny Jackett, manager of the newly-promoted Coca-Cola League One club, said yesterday that a transfer for the 24-year-old was now "doubtful".

Devaney has spoken to Jackett, who said: "We will take players who are better than the ones we have got or who complement our squad. We won't take them for the sake of it."

Kenny Jackett today unveiled plans to keep all five of his out-of-contract senior players at Swansea City next season. The Swansea boss revealed that talks have begun with Leon Britton, Izzy Iriekpen, Kevin Austin and Brian Murphy as well as player-of-the-year Kristian O'Leary.

That means youngsters Stuart Jones and Antonio Corbisiero are the only squad members who will definitely leave when their Vetch Field deals expire next month, while long-term injury victim James Thomas has been handed the chance to prove his fitness in pre-season.

''There's nobody who hasn't been spoken to and is waiting to find out,'' Jackett said.

''Antonio Corbisiero and Stuart Jones were given free transfers some time ago, but we have made offers and started negotiations with the rest.

''The chairman has been speaking to Brian Murphy, Kevin Austin, Leon Britton, Kristian O'Leary and Izzy Iriekpen and or their representatives for a number of weeks.

''Over the next fortnight I need to form a squad to compete in League One and I want to keep all of them.

''We will be monitoring James Thomas over the summer and we hope that in July he will be able to come back and take a full part in pre-season training. We will see what happens from there.''

Of the five players Jackett is keen to retain, Britton looks to have the most uncertain future at this stage.

A first-team regular under Brian Flynn, the former West Ham midfielder has played only a bit-part role this season and admitted after last Saturday's promotion-clinching win at Bury that he would need assurances from the manager before committing to a new contract.

''I read what Leon said and I thought he spoke very well,'' Jackett added.

''He said he would like to stay but he also talked about how often he has played. I can't speak for him, but I can speak for Swansea City and say we definitely want to keep at him at this club. I think he is a good player.''

Jackett plans to offer youth-team strikers Mark Pritchard and Chad Bond professional terms, while he refused to rule out the possibility of under-contract players being transfer-listed.

''I will take my time to make sure I don't make any mistakes and will have to speak to one or two individuals before deciding if anyone goes on the transfer list,'' he added.

''I know what my budget is and I have to look at what I can bring in and what I've got left. There's money left, but it's a question of how much the players I've targeted will cost.

''We're looking at a squad of 20 to 22 players, but if I can make that 25 with some younger players then great. We have to bear in mind that the transfer window comes in next season.''

Swansea's coffers were boosted last night when Andy Robinson came off the bench to seal the club's first FAW Premier Cup final victory and a £100,00 winners' cheque.

Added Jackett: ''It's an important win for us that rounds off a fantastic season. What we must do now is make sure all the hard work we have put in doesn't go to waste next year.''

Swansea defender Sam Ricketts has pulled out of Wales's training camp in Spain later this month because of his ongoing stomach and groin problems.

So this really was the end for the Vetch. And 9,345 fans turned out to bid the ground they have called home a final farewell.
"I was there," said one fan.

"You can tell your children, your grandchildren, your schoolmates that 'I was there at the end'."

Promotion was secured at Bury on Saturday and last night Swansea was in a mood to carry on the celebrations.

But that didn't mean fans did not care about the result and victory over Wrexham in The FAW Cup was a fitting send off.

It may not have been a classic display, but on a night like last night surely it was written in the stars that The Swans would come out on top.

As the players raised the trophy at the end, the Jack Army did their best to raze the ground.

Turf was dug up ready to be planted in the back garden - a little piece of the Vetch that will never die.

Cherished seats were ripped up and taken home. Even advertising hoardings were fair game for souvenir hunters, although most had second thoughts about carting an eight-foot plywood Remax ad all the way home.

There was no wonder that fans wanted more than just memories.

The ground has held a special place in the hearts of Swans fans for generations.

Ever since the first players stepped out onto the pitch in 1912 it has been their spiritual home.

But all good things must come to an end, and last night they said an emotional goodbye.

Next season they will be cheering from the plush new stadium in Morfa, but regulars on the North Bank will always look back on the Vetch with fondness.

With all those memories tied up in the old stadium it's no wonder The Jack Army won't let it die completely.

But last night was not just about the end of an era, it was about a bright new dawn for Swansea City.

Now it is time to move onwards and upwards, and look to the future.

Speaking to the thousands of fans on the pitch at the end of the game, Kenny Jackett summed it up perfectly.

"It's been a fantastic season. To win promotion and the FAW Cup is, for all of us, a dream come true.

"But we must build on that and use it as a stepping stone."

So now it really is time for The Swans to move on.

END of The Vetch, perhaps the end of Wrexham FC, although I don't believe that for one minute.
End of the FAW Premier Cup?

Fortunately not, I'm told, because my understanding is that the competition has been given the go-ahead for at least one more season after last night's final between Swansea City and Wrexham.

The Premier Cup, in the early days, used to be a bit of a joke. Cardiff City still treat it that way, a certain Mr Hammam choosing to stick the Bluebirds' second team out in the competition.

But this is actually the cup of hope for Welsh football, the tournament being run these days by a go-ahead board of directors.

Last night's final was between two high-profile league teams, played before an excellent Vetch crowd and which will have attracted a decent TV audience on BBC Wales.

Compare that to the real joke cup competition - the old Welsh Cup.

I don't wish to appear disparaging to the clubs who play in it these days, because this is not their fault.

But the Welsh Cup was once a truly fantastic tournament, producing thrills, spills, great games, big upsets and some showpiece finals before bumper crowds at the old Arms Park.

Not to mention great European exploits the following season by Cardiff, Wrexham, Swansea, Newport County, Merthyr, Bangor. The list goes on.

On Sunday we had a final at Llanelli's Stebonheath ground between TNS and Carmarthen which attracted a paying gate of under 1,000.

The two sides deserve to be commended for getting there. TNS have an excellent set-up under chairman Mike Harris; their opponents have an enthusiastic and highly capable manager in Mark Jones.

But it was still a final which had little interest amongst the Welsh soccer public at large, let alone the sporting public, and will have commanded negligible TV viewing figures.

There is still no sponsor for the competition; hasn't been since the FA of Wales booted out our league clubs, plus Merthyr and Newport.

In fact, the FAW have turned what was traditionally a great old national cup competition into such a third-rate event that they even played the Irish national anthem at Sunday's final!

No, this is no joke. They botched up the tape and strains of Ireland's Call bellowed out, rather than Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.

Could only happen in Wales, couldn't it?

The easy thing to do here is laugh this off as a typical FAW clanger.

But it's too important for that in my eyes because botching up something as simple as playing the correct anthem is simply symptomatic, in my eyes, of the third-rate competition the great old Welsh Cup has become.

Anyway, simply slaughtering the FAW does a disservice to the more modern-thinking ruling council members who have by and large done an excellent job in running Welsh football recently.

What those more go-ahead FAW members need to do is use Sunday's anthem botch-up as a reason to take a hard look at the Welsh Cup.

They need to PROPERLY explore the task of restoring credibility to Welsh club soccer by finding a European avenue again for our Football League trio.

If necessary, via the FAW Premier Cup. Which totally overshadows the old Welsh Cup these days, even though it currently doesn't have any European entry from it.

Granting it that status would give the tournament real oomph. Merge the two cups and seed the big guns, if necessary.

It's no good the FAW doing what they've done before. Send a delegation of secretary David Collins and a couple of others to Switzerland where, I'm told, they were afforded a few minutes with UEFA chief Gerard Aigner sitting on a sofa in a corridor!

That's not good enough. It's disrespectful to Wales, it's disrespectful to our league clubs and it's disrespectful to the massive army of fans who follow our Big Three and would like to see their right to play in Europe restored.

Yes, Wrexham included, because I'm convinced they will be around to fight another day next season.

No, our league trio can't do it via the Premiership or FA Cup because the English FA have formally told the FAW in a letter they will never nominate Cardiff, Swansea or Wrexham for Europe in the unlikely event of any of the trio being in a position to qualify.

Then again, Millwall got there last season via the FA Cup Final. And don't they play in the division the Bluebirds do?

Whatever, this is an issue the FAW need to address themselves with a proper two or three-year strategy.

Questions need to be asked of the right people who walk the football, political and legal corridors of power.

'We have a problem here. What do we need to do to address it?'

MPs, MEPs and Welsh Assembly AMs should be lobbied about what is a clear Welsh injustice.

Heck, enough fuss is being made about Liverpool not being able to enter the UEFA Champions League next season if they win it this month.

That's a massive injustice too, but it's a one-off. At least Liverpool have a European avenue open to them.

The Welsh clubs are the only ones in Europe who are totally barred.

Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham are hardly shining examples of clubs who have been run superbly, you might argue.

But the fact remains they are still way out in front as our top teams and are the ones capable of drawing massive followings. Witness last night's final.

The FAW have two choices here. They either meekly succumb to the wishes of some Welsh Premier outfits, who, deep down, don't wish to see Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham take their European places.

In which case nothing changes with the Welsh Cup's huge loss of credibility.

Or the FAW go at this aggressively and with real purpose and intent, rather than just a dip their toe in the water to gauge UEFA reaction.

They got the Welsh Cup into this mess; they are the ones who need to get Welsh football out of it.

Mario Risoli hears from IAN HOLLOWAY about the Swansea success of his former No 2 Kenny Jackett... and whether Cardiff City midfielder Richard Langley will be returning to Loftus Road
KENNY JACKETT is the toast of Wales' second city after masterminding Swansea City's rise to League One.

Yet the former Wales defender could so easily be working across the Severn right now - for Bristol Rovers.

Queens Park Rangers boss Ian Holloway, who hired Jackett as his No 2 at Loftus Road, recommended his close friend apply for Rovers job when it was available.

But, fortunately for the Swans, nothing came of it and the rest, as they say, is history.

"When Bristol Rovers were looking for a new manager, I recommended them to Kenny," said Holloway.

"I knew Kenny would be a brilliant manager. I think he's fantastic - what a fella!

"Kenny is dedicated and wants to do it. No matter what the budget, he will keep doing the right thing for his players and the club," added Holloway, who worked with Jackett for three years at Loftus Road.

"When he won promotion at Bury on Saturday I rang him up straight away - and he told me. 'I'm waiting to get my goalie out of jail!'"

Jackett had a rough ride at the Vetch after replacing Brian Flynn in the Swans dugout in April 2004.

He took over with six matches of he 2003-04 season remaining - and lost the first four.

After a stuttering start to the 2004-05 campaign, Jackett could hear Swansea fans calling for his head, ironically at Loftus Road.

A section of supporters turned on the former Watford and Wales player during the 3-0 Carling Cup defeat against Rangers last September.

Holloway remembers that night well. "Our fans were singing, 'There's only one Kenny Jackett!' and the Swansea fans were chanting, 'You can have him back!'

"I thought that was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

I wonder what they think of Kenny at the moment.

"When I think about what the Swansea fans put him through, and when I think about the rubbish he took when we played Swansea, I can't tell you how proud I am of Kenny.

"I told the Swansea fans he would be a brilliant manager - if they shut up and gave him a chance.

"He had a baptism of fire there, but he came through with flying colours as I knew he would."

Holloway maintains Jackett should have waited until the end of the 2003-04 season before moving to the Vetch.

"I think it would have been better for him to wait until the summer before taking that job. It would have made things easier for him," he said.

"If he had waited, he wouldn't have had that string of results that he had at the end of the season.

"He could have stayed with me until the summer because he would have watched enough Swansea games to decide what he was going to do when he went there.

"It's very difficult when you take a job during the season, particularly when the manager you're replacing was popular.

"Personally, I think it would have been easier for Kenny to take over at Swansea in the summer.

"Having said that, what he went through at the start will have made him a better and stronger person."

Holloway brought Jackett to London W12 in 2001 after losing his coaching job at Watford following Gianluca Vialli's arrival at Vicarage Road.

The duo took Rangers to the Division Two play-off final in 2003 where they were narrowly beaten by Cardiff City.

But a year later the Londoners won automatic promotion, although Jackett had left Loftus Road by the time Holloway and his players were sipping champagne at Hillsborough after the 3-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday that secured their spot in the Championship.

"Kenny's knowledge is absolutely superb. He's qualified to the hilt. He's done every course there is to do," added Holloway.

"He's got all the qualifications - just like Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.

"If you could put Kenny's experience in a bottle, it would be the most expensive thing you could buy."

Jackett's only previous managerial experience pre-Swansea was a season in charge of Watford in 1996-97.

"Kenny came close to taking Watford to the play-offs, but they took the job off him and gave it back to Graham Taylor. He always had a bee in his bonnet about that.He didn't think that was fair," said Holloway.

Holloway and Jackett were the perfect managerial team because they were opposites. Holloway is emotional, fiery and outspoken while Jackett is cool, calm and collected.

"Kenny is someone who thinks before speaking. He speaks commons sense, even in the hottest situations," explained 'Ollie.'

"He really helped me when he was at QPR. We were in what is now League One and at times I tended to overplay in that division.

"I would occasionally get things wrong, but Kenny knew the division from his time at Watford and he would put things right.

"Sometimes you've got to play off your front men and move the ball about when you're in the opposition's half.

"He helped me as a manager and, I hope, I helped him as a coach. He will be a friend of mine for life.

"He was a top-class player, but his playing career was cut short by injury when he was 27. That could have made him bitter and twisted, but he isn't."

Holloway is confident Jackett's Swans will do more than merely make up the numbers in League One.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, Kenny can take Swansea even further. I really can't see how he can fail.

"If you look at his coaching background, he has spent a lot of his time in League One so he's got knowledge of that division.

"I also believe a lot of Swansea's players can easily play in League One. It will suit them better than League Two.

"For example, I know Andy Gurney really well from my time at Bristol Rovers and I think League Two was too easy for him.

"I think there were a few other players at Swansea in the same situation."

With a sparkling new stadium ready to house successful soccer and rugby teams, ALAN CURTIS talks to Paul Abbandonato about how far sport in Swansea has come in a few short years
WHAT a difference three years, a new stadium and a couple of new boards of directors makes.

Not so far in the distant past, the city of Swansea stood on the brink of a sporting abyss.

Just like Newport became a sporting ghost town towards the end of the 1980s, with the County going bust and turmoil at Rodney Parade, so Swansea was staring potential oblivion in the face.

The Swans were on the verge of administration and dropping our of the Football League and into the Vauxhall Conference.

The Whites were to disappear, as the WRU planned a new regional structure for Wales.

Cardiff was a sporting boom city, the big Millennium Stadium showpieces supplementing the success of the rise and rise Bluebirds.

Swansea, the area which produced the likes of John Charles, Mervyn Davies and Gareth Edwards, was going the other way.

And then it changed. The Morfa finally got up and running, the Swans were taken over by local businessmen and began to thrive.

And the Neath-Swansea Ospreys embraced regional rugby more than any other Welsh region.

They kick off at the Morfa next season as the Celtic League champions, the happening team in Wales and with the likes of fliers Shane Williams and Gavin Henson in their colours.

Yesterday, the first lot of season tickets went on sale for the Morfa. Loads were snapped up in no time, by fans keen to cheer on the Swans AND the Ospreys in 2005-06.

"You're right, what a difference to just a few years ago," smiled Swansea legend Alan Curtis, who has been part of the new-found success story at The Vetch.

"I remember talk of Swansea becoming a sporting ghost town, but suddenly it's a boom city.

"There is a real optimism sweeping the area about the rugby and football teams, following the success this season.

"And the fact that we're each going to be playing in a fantastic new stadium is going to increase that boom factor.

"Remember what happened with the Millennium Stadium when it was built. People wanted to go there to see this wonderful new facility for Wales.

"That will be the case here too with the Morfa. There is a pride in the two teams and people will watch the pair of them next season.

"That said, we know we can't just rest on our laurels here and expect the fans to turn up, just because of the Morfa.

"They will in the short term, but to keep them coming through the turnstiles we need to produce winning and entertaining teams."

Asked about the problems of the not so distant past, Curtis continued, "With the greatest of respect to Newport, I didn't think things could become quite as bad in Swansea as they were then back towards the end of the 1980s.

"Not when you consider the huge conveyor belt of football and rugby talent this area has produced down the years.

"But, that said, there was a distinct chance at one point that the Swans would fall out of the League and into the Conference.

"If the rugby team struggled, too, questions might well have been asked about whether there was any point in building a new 20,000 seater stadium.

"Sometimes, when you hit rock bottom as we did in Swansea sport, you actually draw strength because the only way is up.

"Local business leaders wanted to ensure that we never got into this sort of crisis again, because sport has always been so important to this part of Wales.

"People in the city and its surrounding areas rallied round and the upshot is the success we have just seen not only from the Swans, but the Ospreys too.

"It's fantastic and we will each be aiming to keep it going next season and keep up this new-found sporting interest and boom in the city.

"As far as the Swans are concerned, we're up into League One and we've got to ensure the momentum doesn't stop.

"Last time we were promoted, we came straight back down. This time the new stadium will play a significant part in helping make sure that doesn't happen, in terms of the interest, the revenue it will bring in and so on.

"As for the Ospreys, well their thrilling brand of rugby and success has been transferred to the national team, with so many of their players playing a key role in the Grand Slam."

Reflecting upon the end of The Vetch for any sort of football, and St Helen's for top flight rugby, Curtis said, "These are two grounds with a massive tradition in sport.

"St Helen's perhaps even more so than the Vetch, because lots of Wales rugby internationals have been played there in the past.

"But the new ground is playing a big part in the new hope in Swansea. The Morfa's supposed to have been built for the past 15 years or so.

"Everybody had become weary of the conversation when discussing it, because some might have been questioning whether it would actually happen.

"Well it's there, it's brilliant and there are two successful teams on the up ready to play in it.

"This is a new era for Swansea, and Welsh sport. We already can't wait for the new season."

KENNY JACKETT described the way Swansea City ended their season as a "dream come true" after watching them complete the league and cup double last night.
Swansea beat Wrexham 2-1 in the last game at the Vetch Field to add the FAW Premier Cup to the promotion they clinched at Bury.

And Jackett beamed, "The way we've finished this season, it's a dream come true.

"To win promotion and the FAW Premier Cup within the space of a few days is a fantastic achievement.

"On the night, I'm not sure we deserved the victory. I thought the game could have gone either way. But I was pleased with our response after we went 1-0 down.

"It was important for me that we won this competition. It puts the cap on a great season.

"But we must build on this next season. We have to make sure we use it as a stepping stone. And if we - and the supporters - can show the same type of passion next year as we have this year, we can go on and attack League One."

It was substitute Andy Robinson, returning from suspension in the league for head-butting an opponent in the recent 2-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers, who grabbed the decisive goal, and what proved to be the last one at the Vetch.

"Even though I was on the bench, I hoped I would play a part tonight and to get the winning goal was fantastic," said the midfielder.

"I just had a feeling I would score. Maybe it was written in the stars after what happened a couple of weeks ago."

SUBSTITUTE Andy Robinson scored the winning goal as Swansea rounded off life at the Vetch with a 2-1 victory over Wrexham in the FAW Premier Cup final.

It was a fitting end to 93 years of football at the ground - the club move to a new £25m arena in August - but troubled Wrexham will wonder how the game got away.

Juan Ugarte had given the Dragons the lead on the hour, but Shaun Pejic put through his own net and Robinson settled the match 14 minutes from time.

The mood of the two sides could not have been more different going into the game, with Wrexham condemned to League Two next season and Swansea taking their place in League One.

But it was Denis Smith's administration-bound Wrexham, playing the football which took them to victory in the LDV Vans Trophy last month, who started the better, dominating the first half.

Wrexham finally took the lead just after the hour when Dennis Lawrence turned back Craig Morgan's free-kick and Ugarte lashed home from point-blank range for his 28th goal of the season.

But their joy was short-lived as Connor's 68th-minute shot took a wicked deflection off Pejic for the equaliser.

The winner came as Lee Trundle had a shot charged down and a grateful Robinson pounced on the rebound.

LEE TRUNDLE believes the real Swansea City promotion party will take place tonight when Kenny Jackett's men face his old club Wrexham in the FAW Premier Cup final - the last game to be played at the Vetch Field.

The 28-year-old marksman believes the clash with the Red Dragons gives the Swans faithful a chance to celebrate their promotion to League One and their farewell to the club's home since 1912.

The Swans escaped from the league basement courtesy of last Saturday's 1-0 win at Bury, but the celebrations were cut short by the shock arrest of goalkeeper Willy Gueret.

Trundle also said the players were unable to enjoy the carnival before the Swans' last league game at the Vetch, against Shrewsbury on April 30, because they were still gunning for automatic promotion.

"I think there will be a party at the Vetch and it will be nice for the players to show our appreciation to the fans," said the striker who quit Wrexham for Swansea two years ago.

"We wanted to celebrate with our fans on Saturday, but we weren't allowed to do that. We couldn't show them how much they mean to us."

Gueret was arrested just minutes after the Swans had booked their place in League One for supposedly shouting foul language at a police officer while celebrating promotion in Bury's directors box.

The 31-year-old Frenchman was led out of Gigg Lane in handcuffs and taken to Bury Police Station.

He was later released after being hit with an £80 public order fixed penalty charge.

"What happened to Willy did upset us. It was supposed to be a great day because we had just won promotion," said Trundle, the Swans' top scorer this term with 23.

"As I said, all we wanted to do was celebrate with our own fans after going up."

He added, "There was a great atmosphere before the Shrewsbury game because it was the last league game at the Vetch.

"But it was a tense occasion for the team because we had to win that game to stay in the automatic promotion race.

"Now we've got promotion, we can relax, go out and enjoy this game against Wrexham."

The Swans will start next season at their new stadium at Morfa and Trundle, who has won this competition twice with Wrexham, wants to wave farewell to the Vetch with the FAW Premier Cup under his arm.

His former club - who have already lifted the LDV Vans Trophy this season - have other ideas.

Relegated to League Two, still in the grip of administration and facing an uncertain future, the North Wales crisis club are desperate to end the season on a high.

The losers are guaranteed to pick up £50,000, but Wrexham would prefer to receive the £100,000 winners' cheque.

Trundle, whose professional career began at the Racecourse when then-Wrexham chief Brian Flynn signed him from Rhyl for £60,000 in 2001, spoke of his personal sadness at the Red Dragons' plight.

"I feel for Wrexham. It was my first club and I've still got connections up there," he explained.

"It was the club where it all began for me, where I started my professional career. I had some good days there and I have fond memories of my time at Wrexham.

"I would like to have played them in League One next season, but it wasn't to be.

"I hope the club can keep going. You have to give Denis Smith credit for trying to keep it all together.

"You also have to give their players credit. They kept going, they won the LDV Vans Trophy and they've made it to this final as well."

Trundle dropped down a division when he left the Racecourse for the Vetch.

He quit the Red Dragons after helping them win promotion from the old Division Three.

"Wrexham will be disappointed they got relegated and they will want to win the FAW Premier Cup to get a bit of glory back," he continued.

"But we also want to win it, not because it's a cup but also because the money we get if we win will help us in a higher division."

Trundle has played in League One with Wrexham and is confident the current Swans side will not be among the also-rans next term.

"The club is moving forward and we can definitely be a force next season," he said.

"We're not going into League One to languish at the bottom. We'll be pushing for the top.

"You can play more football in that division and that will suit us because we've got footballers in our side."

KENNY JACKETT will not take any action against Willy Gueret for being arrested minutes after Swansea City clinched promotion at Bury.
Swansea manager Jackett yesterday confirmed he would not fine his French goalkeeper after he was driven away from Gigg Lane in the back of a police van wearing handcuffs.

Gueret was celebrating Swansea's promotion to League One when he was taken to Bury Police Station and hit with an £80 public order fixed penalty charge.

But Jackett said he is backing the former Millwall shot-stopper and insisted Saturday's fiasco is now history.

"I won't be taking any action against Willy whatsoever. I'm backing him 100 per cent," said Jackett. "What happened at Bury happened. My view is that it's best to let it go.

"We've talked about the situation and that's as far as it goes in my book. Both myself and Willy are keen to drop the whole thing."

Gueret was arrested as officers from Greater Manchester Police tried to break up Swansea celebrations after their 1-0 win.

Following heated exchanges between players and police, the 31-year-old was led away from Gigg Lane in handcuffs after supposedly shouting foul language at an officer.

The Swans team bus then had to stop at the police station on the way home with Jackett collecting the stunned goalkeeper.

"What happened with Willy didn't take the gloss off Saturday, although I was annoyed we couldn't celebrate with our fans after the game," insisted Jackett.

"The Bury chairman invited us into the directors' box after the game but I don't think he was aware of the safety issues the police had.

"The players had gone upstairs but I wasn't allowed to go up because the police and stewards said there were too many people up there.

"I didn't see the incident with Willy but he had a disagreement with the police. They took him to the station and let him cool off."

Jackett said Gueret was released at around 7pm - and that the Frenchman started singing Engelbert Humperdinck's Please Release Me once he was on the team bus.

"After the final whistle we wanted to celebrate with our fans who were fantastic on the day. They were like a 12th man," added the former Queens Park Rangers No 2.

"They were singing and chanting throughout the entire game. I've never seen a performance from a set of fans like it. They took over the ground and were unbelievable.

"But the police and the stewards had their safety issues. They started to panic about the number of people in the directors' box and that's why there was a clash.

"It would have been great to have celebrated with the supporters.

"I would have been happy to wait and let things die down. I would have been happy to wait an hour."

Jackett said tomorrow's FAW Premier Cup final at the Vetch would be an ideal time and place to finish the promotion party.

"We've now got an opportunity to celebrate with our fans on Wednesday. It should be a great atmosphere at the Vetch," he added.

KENNY Jackett is to open transfer talks with Cheltenham winger Martin Devaney as he begins building a squad to compete in League One.

And the Swansea City boss has admitted that he may go back in for Grant Holt, Andy Burgess and Marc Goodfellow having seen bids for the trio rejected over the course of the season.

The skilful Devaney, who can play on either side of midfield, is out of contract next month and is available on a free after rejecting the offer of a new deal at Whaddon Road.

Pacy and with an eye for goal, the 24-year-old was linked with a move to Championship side Burnley in the spring.

"I've spoken to (Cheltenham manager) John Ward and he's given me permission to talk to Martin Devaney," Jackett revealed.

"I'll be meeting him inside the next week, while Holt, Burgess and Goodfellow are all good players who I will be considering, no doubt about it."

Swansea failed in a £75,000 bid for 24-goal Rochdale striker Holt, while Rushden & Diamonds turned down a similar offer for midfielder Burgess in January.

Winger Goodfellow enjoyed a successful loan spell at Vetch Field in mid-season, but Bristol City snubbed Swansea's attempt to make the move permanent with a £25,000 bid over Christmas.

The 23-year-old has recently been on loan at Colchester and, though the Robins circulated his details to all League One and Two clubs over the weekend, they are demanding a fee.

While he has one eye on tomorrow night's FAW Premier Cup final against Wrexham, Jackett concedes he faces a busy couple of weeks as preparations for life in a higher division began in earnest.

"All my focus of late has been on clinching promotion and I haven't thought that much about new players," he added.

"But in the next fortnight I am going to have to sit down with the chairman and work it all out.

"We need to assemble a squad that we feel can do very well in the league above and there are a number of factors that must be taken into account.

"We have to consider the 60 per cent wage cap, the transfer window which comes into operation next season and what type of players we'll be looking for."

Jackett must also make decisions on the futures of a number of players already on Swansea's books, with his end-of-season retained list likely to come on Thursday.

Kevin Austin, Leon Britton, Izzy Iriekpen and Kristian O'Leary are all out of contract along with Brian Murphy, James Thomas and player-assistant boss Kevin Nugent.

Youngsters Stuart Jones and Antonio Corbisiero have already been told they can leave, while youth-team striker Mark Pritchard will hope for a first professional deal.

"I'll be sitting down with every player and assessing their own personal situations after the Wrexham game," Jackett said.

Sam Ricketts (right) and Swansea City predecessor Richard Duffy have been included in an experimental Wales squad for the training camp in Spain later this month. Burnley's John Oster and Manchester City defender Ben Thatcher are called up for the first time under John Toshack for the six-day trip to San Sebastian.

A number of senior players are absent but there is no recall for Birmingham's Robbie Savage.

Wales training squad: Coyne (Burnley), Hennessey (Wolves), Jones (Wolves), Collins (Sunderland), Collins (Cardiff), Delaney (Aston Villa), Duffy (Portsmouth), Edwards (Wolves), Gabbidon (Cardiff), Gilbert (Plymouth), Morgan (Wrexham), Page (Coventry), Ricketts (Swansea), Thatcher, (Man City), A. Davies (Yeovil), Koumas (WBA), Oster (Burnley), Parry (Cardiff), Robinson (Sunderland), Vaughan (Crewe), C. Davies (Oxford), Earnshaw (WBA).

The weight of great expectations finally removed from his shoulders, Kenny Jackett is keen to avoid bold predictions about Swansea City in League One. Understandable, really, since the former Queens Park Rangers No. 2 has carried a burden that would have broken others' backs ever since switching to South Wales 13 months ago.

Goodbye Vetch Field, hello Morfa meant Jackett arrived to cut his managerial teeth with the pressure gauge cranked up a little further in an office where cigars have hardly been the order of the day even during the club's happier times.

''I have had to prove a few people wrong,'' the Swansea boss admits.

After a taxing season, Saturday's suitably crazy climax at Bury means that job is done.

The Jackett family do have a well-earned holiday planned, probably at Disneyworld in June.

Something of a busman's break really for dad, who has spent 2004-5 on one long rollercoaster ride.

He accepts he may have to put his feet up for a couple of days after a couple of weeks Stateside with Mickey Mouse and friends.

''I was speaking to Tim Breacker at QPR and he tells me it's pretty tiring,'' Jackett smiles.

Unfortunately, there probably won't be time for a post-Florida rest.

Swansea's up-and-coming manager has quite rightly been lauded for winning automatic promotion in his first full season in charge.

He will long be remembered as the man who secured glory in the final season at the Vetch.

But this is a man with his head screwed on, one who recognises that footballing fortunes are liable to change.

''You always have to prove yourself and then reprove yourself in this game,'' he adds.

''At the top Chelsea will have to do it next season by winning the Premiership again, and the same goes for every club down the leagues. You have to prove yourself every week. You can win on the Saturday, but that's forgotten if you lose the following Tuesday night.

''So next season we have to go and prove ourselves again and we will enjoy that challenge.

''That's what separates professionals from people who play football for fun.''

So what will Jackett's men have to achieve on the second rung of the Coca-Cola League to prove themselves in 2005-6?

''I'm not making any predictions now,'' he says.

''But I don't want to go in there just to make the numbers up, and knowing the chairman and his principles I'm sure he'll feel the same.

''We have to be aiming to attack the next division.''

Swansea are not talking numbers just yet, but the noises coming from the club suggest there will be a steady flow of new faces in these parts during the close season in a bid to avoid past mistakes.

There are not too many survivors of the 2000 promotion win at the Vetch today, but all are well aware that John Hollins made not one addition to his squad ahead of life in Division Two.

Twelve months later Hollins's team were back where they started.

''The new stadium is going to help as far as attracting players goes,'' says Jackett.

''And if we can do well and get crowds of 12 or 15,000 next season, we could have big financial potential as well.

''With crowds like that, we'll have a better chance than a lot of clubs in League One.''

It gets better every time Swansea City get promoted for local boy Kristian O'Leary. The 27-year-old midfielder was part of the Swans side that won the old Division Three title in 2000, but he rates Saturday's dramatic final day of the season promotion at Bury even better.

''I know we won the title last time, but this takes a bit of beating,'' said the club's player of the year.

''We went into the game not knowing what was going to happen, and to go up on the final day of the season is a bit special.

''The whole day was superb; every time we get promoted the feeling gets better.''

O'Leary has experienced the highs and the lows for the Swans during his 10 years at the Vetch and he points to Saturday as one as the most memorable moments in his career.

''It has got to be up there as one of the best times in my career,'' he said.

''Saturday topped off a superb season for me, all my family, the players and all the fans. It has been unbelievable.''

O'Leary, who came straight from school in Port Talbot to the Swans and is hoping for a new deal this summer to extend his stay with the club he supported as boy, was the provider for Adrian Forbes's vital goal after 25 seconds at Gigg Lane that clinched Kenny Jackett's side promotion to League One.

The midfielder, who has teamed up well with skipper Roberto Martinez in the centre of the park this season, had no idea that the Swans were on the verge of starting life at their new Morfa stadium at a higher level because he didn't know that Southend had been held to a draw at Grimsby.

''It was important for the gaffer to know what was happening around the country so that he could make the right changes,'' said O'Leary, whose contract expires in the summer.

''I was trying to read his changes, but I didn't have a clue and when Kevin McLeod came on (for Lee Trundle) he wasn't giving anything away.''

With more than 100 minutes of tension, O'Leary gave every last ounce of effort to ensure that the Swans would hold on for a memorable victory.

''I had cramp in places I never knew existed,'' said O'Leary.

''When we found out that Southend had finished and that they had drawn it was a matter of kicking and heading anything that moved.''

The win was only Swansea's second away win since January 22 - the other was at Cheltenham on Easter Monday - while Bury had lost only once in 10 matches before Saturday.

''We said last week that our away form didn't matter,'' added O'Leary. ''Bury were a form team and we were a form team - we won five out of our last eight games.

''They didn't make it easy for us and it was a great time to get the away win.

''Overall we deserved this promotion. We have had a good season. I know we have had a couple of iffy results but everyone has a dip in form.

''But we stayed strong as a group and it was important that we have got this promotion going into the new stadium.''

THREE familiar names are on Swansea City's early-summer shopping list.

Marc Goodfellow spent a month on loan at the Vetch last season, while midfielder Andy Burgess and striker Grant Holt were both pursued without success by Swans boss Kenny Jackett.

MARC GOODFELLOW

(Bristol City)

ON his way out of Bristol City and Swansea are sure to be back in the hunt for the 23-year-old wideman.

Goodfellow scored four goals in seven appearances under Jackett and he was also a useful provider as Swansea scored 14 times in his last four games at the Vetch.

The transfer fee that was a stumbling block to a permanent move last January has now been removed, though Swansea are not exactly short of widemen with Andy Robinson, Adrian Forbes and Kevin McLeod all at the club.

ANDY BURGESS

(Rushden and Diamonds)

THE 23-year-old Bedford-born midfielder is a formidable presence at 6ft 2in and Jackett is a big admirer.

Burgess has made nearly 200 league appearances for Rushden and Diamonds since progressing through the ranks at Nene Park.

But Rushden have only just escaped relegation to the Conference and the time might be right for Burgess - whom the Swans offered £75,000 for this season - to sever his links with the Northamptonshire club.

GRANT HOLT

(Rochdale)

TAKEN his time to make a mark in league football after spells with Workington, Halifax, Barrow and Sheffield Wednesday.

But Holt's career has taken off since joining Rochdale in January 2004, scoring 27 goals in 59 games for the Lancashire club to put an unrealistic £300,000 price tag on his head.

Under Jackett's close scrutiny when he scored in Rochdale's 2-2 draw at the Vetch in March, Holt, 24, is another player who would be tempted by football in a higher division.

But will Swansea offer more than the £75,000 they were prepared to pay a few months ago?

WHEN Kenny Jackett slipped quietly into the Vetch hot-seat there were those who wondered whether the Swansea City board had made the right decision.

Little more than 12 months on, Jackett has answered the doubters.

Promotion in his first full season and the prospect of League One football gracing Swansea's new stadium at the Morfa.

Jackett has ended four years in the league's basement for Swansea, an automatic top-three spot clinched with a nail-biting 1-0 win at Bury.

On Saturday, in the aftermath of victory and with the celebrations in full flow, Jackett was understandably keen to talk about this campaign, and not the next one.

But, yesterday as Jackett focused on League One for the first time, there was no desire to play it safe.

The Swans boss insists his side have not gone up merely to make up the numbers. This time, he pledges, will be different to when John Hollins' Swans were promoted as champions in the 1999-2000 season.

When he sits down with chairman Huw Jenkins over the next fortnight to discuss new signings - Bristol City winger Marc Goodfellow, Rushden and Diamonds midfielder Andy Burgess and Rochdale forward Grant Holt are three names on his wish-list - Jackett will give notice of his plan to "attack" League One in 2005-06.

"I don't want to go into League One and just make up the numbers," Jackett told the Western Mail.

"I'm not making any predictions on what we're going to do but I think we can attack that division.

"In the next two weeks I will look at our budget for next season and the balance and strength of the squad.

"I want to build a squad and plan a strategy that means we can do very well in the league above.

"I've not talked too much with Huw (Jenkins) about next season, but I know what his principles are and they are the same as mine. Namely, he doesn't want to just make up the numbers."

Having won promotion in League One as a coach with Watford and, more recently as assistant manager at Queens Park Rangers, Jackett knows what it takes to win a place in the Championship.

"I must admit that in the last two or three weeks I have put signing players on the back-burner because we were trying to win promotion," added Jackett.

"A lot of people have asked me about what changes I will be making to the squad. I've had to wait until the season ended before making any decisions.

"I wanted to see what division we would be in next season. That's a big consideration when it comes to what players you want. I also have to see what our budget is.

"I have pushed everything to one side recently because of the situation we were in.

"But over the next two weeks I will have to look at potential targets, consider the transfer window which comes into effect this year, and sort out the players who are out of contract."

Jackett admitted he is still interested in Goodfellow, Burgess and Holt - three players he wanted to sign during the 2004-05 campaign.

Goodfellow enjoyed a successful one-month loan spell at the Vetch last season, scoring four goals in seven outings, but Bristol City turned down the Swans' £25,000 offer for the former Stoke winger.

Jackett also bid £75,000 for striker Holt but Rochdale wanted an ambitious £300,000 while Rushden rejected his £75,000 for midfielder Burgess.

"I will definitely be considering Grant Holt, Andy Burgess and Marc Goodfellow because I think all three are good players," revealed the Swans boss.

"Marc has come back from a loan spell at Colchester. I know Phil Parkinson, Colchester's manager, very well and I've spoken to him a couple of times about Marc, how he did there and how he played."

Jackett believes the club's new stadium, which they will move into next season, will help attract players to Swansea.

"The stadium will be a big help when it comes to getting players. I used it last year," he explained. "When I spoke to people like Garry Monk, I didn't meet them at the Vetch, I met them at the new stadium so I could tell them, 'This is what's coming in a year's time.'

"Bearing in mind the wage bill must be no more than 60 per cent of the club's turnover, a lot will also depend on the crowds we get.

"If we get good crowds then we have a better chance than other sides in League One. If we can get gates of 12,000-15,000 then financially it could be there for us.

"We've now got the transfer window to think about it. We have to bring in players by the end of August who fit into our wage structure."

The former Wales international will announce his retained list at some point after tomorrow's FAW Premier Cup final against Wrexham - the last ever game at Swansea's historic Vetch Field home.

"I've got a lot to do this week and after Wednesday's game I will sit down with every player here and assess their personal situation," he said.

For now, Jackett wants to end a memorable season not just with promotion but also with the FAW Premier Cup - and the £100,000 prize money that comes with it.

"I want to win the game. It's the last game at the Vetch, there should be a great atmosphere and a terrific crowd. I want us to do a league and cup double," he remarked.

"Winning promotion was our main aim and we've done that while Wrexham were relegated from League One.

"You could say both sides have something that could take their minds off Wednesday's game but I don't think that will be the case.

"Wrexham are the holders. They've had their problems and we have our own agenda. Both teams want to win the cup."

Come June, Jackett will take a well-earned holiday. "The wife has got the Florida brochures out although friends tell me it's the hardest holiday you can have," he said.

"I've been told that after walking around Disneyworld you need another holiday to recover. Tim Breacker, who I worked with at QPR, has told me not to do it. He said he went to Florida last year and came back knackered!"

Somehow, though, you suspect Jackett will have plenty of energy left for life in League One.

Chairman Huw Jenkins has vowed Swansea City will push for promotion again next season - insisting, 'We'll try to learn from the mistakes the club's made in the past.'
Jenkins has promised victorious Swans boss Kenny Jackett that money will be available for him to spend on bolstering his squad this summer.

The Swans chief hopes to avoid the mistakes his predecessors made the last time the Vetch Field club won promotion five years ago.

John Hollins' side suffered from a lack of investment and, as a result, came straight back down to the Third Division just 12 months after being promoted as champions.

With the club about to move to a new 20,000-seater stadium,

Jenkins says the Swans board will do everything in their power to make the club a force in League One.

'We've got to make sure we build on what we've achieved and keep moving forward over the next few years,' he said.

'In the past, we've had too many successes as a club which have been followed by failures soon after.

'I was only a supporter the last time we won promotion, but the squad didn't change much and we made no impact in the league above.

'With the new stadium and the support we've got behind us that perhaps we didn't have in 2000, we've got to make sure we continue to progress.

'It's important we're competing at the top end of the league next season and challenging again for promotion.

'We've got to do well next year. I don't think our supporters would allow us to simply stand still.'

Given the level of investment that went into the side this season - Swansea spent more on players' wages than any other club in the league - promotion was sweet reward for Jenkins.

But the Vetch Field chief knows he and his fellow directors will have to dig deep into their pockets again this summer to ensure the Swans are able to hold their own in the division above.

Jackett will probably need to bring in at least four new players to make sure his squad is good enough to stay up.

'We can't say for certain we won't make the same mistakes the club's made in the past, but we'll try very hard not to,' said Jenkins.

'We always felt it would be no good getting promoted this season without being ready to have a good chance of success next year.

'We knew we'd have to make sure we had the right squad in place for us to do that.

'So there will be funds available for Kenny to spend this summer.

'That's something we've been discussing with Kenny over the past few months.

'In preparation for next season, we sat down and worked out what our plans would be if we got promoted and what they'd be if we didn't get promoted.

'Things or more or less planned out for next season and hopefully we can make one or two additions.

'But we're confident the majority of the current squad will go on to do better things next season in the higher division.'

The promotion Swansea secured with Saturday's 1-0 win at Bury was the culmination of three years of hard work Jenkins and the other directors have put in since assuming control of the club from its much-detested former owner Tony Petty.

Jenkins and co have hired or fired no less than four different managers - Colin Addison, Nick Cusack, Brian Flynn and Jackett - in their pursuit of the promotion dream.

That Jackett is the one to have finally dragged Swansea from the depths of the Football League basement certainly vindicates the board's decision to appoint the ex-Wales international in April 2004.

Back then many Swans fans, who were expecting a bigger name than the former Watford and Queens Park Rangers coach, doubted whether Jackett was the right man to take over from Flynn.

Well, they don't doubt it anymore.

'It's nice knowing we'll have the same manager starting next season!' joked Jenkins in reference to the high number of managerial changes at the Vetch in recent years.

On a more serious note, he went on, 'Winning promotion has proved we've got someone with a desire to be successful.

'Most importantly, it shows our decision to bring Kenny in just over 12 months ago was right.

'And I'm pleased for Kenny that he's achieved his first promotion as a manager in only his first full season at Swansea.

'I'm sure he'll learn from his experiences this season and perhaps give us even more as a manager next year.'

EVEN the surreal sight of goalkeeper Willy Gueret being led away in handcuffs wasn't going to take the gloss off this achievement.

You name it, it happened - premature pitch invasions, touchline brawls and police and pandemonium in the directors' box that ended with Gueret getting his collar felt. Chaos wherever you looked.

But none of it mattered.

However lamentable the behaviour of those Swans fans who encroached onto the pitch during the match or threw missiles at police afterwards, nothing was going to spoil the celebrations of Kenny Jackett and his team and the majority of the travelling supporters.

Not on afternoon they're never likely to forget.

Not after a long, hard slog of a season in which hopes were raised and dashed in almost equal measure.

And not when it was almost two years to the day since the club narrowly avoided dropping out of the other end of the division.

Automatic promotion to League One. Something many feared just wasn't going to happen this season.

Almost 5,000 Swans fans had followed their team up to Manchester, hoping, praying.

But how many would've really expected to be celebrating Swansea's second promotion in five years come 5pm?

How many would've felt totally confident that a) Swansea would get the win they needed and b) Neither Southend nor Scunthorpe would win their matches?

Come on, be honest. Deep down, most had mentally prepared themselves for going through the agony of the play-offs.

That Adrian Forbes followed up scoring the last Vetch league goal with another wonder strike inside the first 25 seconds, that Swansea managed to resist a Bury side hell-bent on spoiling the day and that Southend failed to beat Grimsby simply made this, well, fairytale stuff.

"Sometimes in football, it's your day, and this was our day," said Swansea's victorious manager.

"I've won promotions before as a player and a coach and I've played in the FA Cup final, but this is the best moment of my career by far.

"It's a fantastic achievement, not just for myself and the players, but everyone at the club. It's been a big, big team effort."

Jackett was understandably elated, even after one pessimistic Swans fan had done his best to bring him straight back down to earth.

"Someone came up to me and said, 'Last time we won promotion, we came straight back down.' The usual optimistic Swansea supporter, then. He didn't even say 'Well done'!"

Pessimism, mind you, was rife among many members of the Vetch Field faithful when Swansea dropped out of the automatic promotion places in February.

And it got worse as the Swans chose a crucial stage of the season to go on their worst run - one win in nine games - that left them four points shy of third place following a 2-2 draw at Northampton in late March.

Few shared Jackett's optimism at the time that the Swans could still pick up the required 18 points from their last eight matches to snatch third place.

But snatch it they did, Saturday's momentous Gigg Lane success their sixth win in eight tension-filled matches.

"There's nothing I wanted more than promotion, I was desperate to achieve it," said Jackett, the seventh man in the club's history to lead the Swans up a division.

"At the start of the season I'd have taken the play-offs. We'd been fourth for a number of weeks and mentally I was prepared for both outcomes.

"But I'm thrilled to go straight up because we were in the top three from September through to February. We were in touching distance for so long."

At Gigg Lane, Swansea were in touching distance of League One for more than 89 agonising minutes after Forbes, saving his best for last this season, struck gold on 25 seconds.

The mighty Swans following, filling the Manchester air with spine-tingling renditions of Bread of Heaven and Hymns and Arias, were put on red alert when Kris O'Leary picked out Forbes with a sumptuous cross-field pass.

Everyone in red held their breath as Forbes controlled it with his head before blasting a magnificent rising, right-foot shot into the roof of the net from the edge of the Bury box.

Cue wild, but outrageously over-the-top celebrations from some Swans fans who leapt over the advertising boards to run onto the pitch and celebrate with the players.

Ushered back into the stands by stewards and players, the supporters spent the rest of the first half chewing their nails away as the shook-up Shakers somehow failed to draw level.

In a fractious opening 45 - two players from either side were booked for reckless fouls - Brian Barry-Murphy, Simon Whaley and Ricky Shakes all spurned glorious opportunities for the home side, the latter seeing a 46th-minute header kept out by the feet of an unsuspecting Gueret.

News filtered through that Southend and Shrewsbury were only drawing in their matches at Grimsby and Shrewsbury - the Swans were up as it stood at half-time!

Those of a nervous disposition must have felt inclined to look away during the second half - especially when Forbes, Lee Thorpe and Lee Trundle all missed great chances to make things far more comfortable.

Then came the news that brought the first sustained choruses of "The Jacks are Going Up! - Grimsby had gone 1-0 in front.

But twitchy bum time, as Jackett and others had labelled it, began 13 minutes later when Southend pulled a goal back and it look increasingly likely that Bury would do the same.

The minutes ticked away and still Swansea held on. Still they resisted the seemingly irresistible force of the Bury attacks, the back four defending as if their lives depended on keeping a clean sheet.

As it stood, Colin Kazim-Richards would've sent Swansea into the play-offs with one stroke of his right boot had he found some accuracy when presented with a glorious far-post chance.

A few minutes before the end and everyone had a breather when Swans' fans began spilling onto the pitch again and, in the heat of it all, Thorpe and Swans substitute Andy Gurney had a nasty and unnecessary altercation with Bury boss Graham Barrow by the dug-outs.

It took five minutes for order to be restored and play resumed for a final few minutes that must have seemed like an eternity for everyone of a Swansea persuasion.

Finally, minutes after it was confirmed Southend had been frustrated on Cleethorpes, the whistle blew not just on a crazy afternoon but Swansea's four-year stay in the Football League's basement division.

It was the cue for a third and final pitch invasion from the travelling hoards and scenes of riotous celebration in the directors' box soon after.

"Talk about drama!" Jackett said, referring not only to the 90 minutes, but the astonishing arrest of his goalkeeper for supposedly shouting foul language at a police officer.

"It was an eventful day wasn't it? We don't do anything easy or straightforward at Swansea."

Jackett knew it could so easily have been a lot more straightforward.

"During the match, I was aware that Southend were 1-0 down, but when it went to 1-1, I began wondering whether the chances we missed were going to be crucial.

"Our defending was magnificent, but we had several opportunities to put the game away. A second goal would've killed Bury off and settled everyone's nerves.

"But that wouldn't be us would it?

"In the end, with Scunthorpe and Southend failing to win away from home, it was a massive win.

"But I thought we made it our day. The 4-3-3 formation we played suited us, our midfielders fought for every ball and our supporters turned it into a home game.

"They were magnificent. It was a fantastic day."

Indeed it was. But where now for the Swans? Can they really be a force to be reckoned with in League One next season?

"We certainly want to go on and build on this," said Jackett.

"We've talked all season about potential and the optimism the new stadium has given us.

"That's no different whatever league we're in - going into the stadium next year will give the club a hell of a lot of optimism.

"But it's perhaps a bit too early to start talking about next year. For now, I think we should all just enjoy this wonderful achievement."

The celebrations are sure to continue for some time yet.

BURY boss Graham Barrow wants his players to give the Shakers fans something to shout about in their last game of the season, at home to Swansea tomorrow.

Barrow has guided his team to League Two safety this season with games to spare, but stresses he wants to end the campaign with a win.

"We owe it to all the other teams in the league to put in a good performance, but mostly for our fans," he said. "They deserve to see us work for a win.

"I'd like to go away over the summer knowing we didn't lose in our last match. It would be a good end to a good run and a nice feeling."

Barrow has few injury worries - Jon Newby is still on crutches, while Lee Unsworth (groin) and Terry Dunfield (knee) are also out.

LAST SEASON: Bury 2 Swansea 0

KEY OPPONENT: Lee Trundle - 23 goals speaks for itself

PREDICTION: Bury 2 Swansea 1

When the Football League selected "One Hundred Legends" in 1998, four Welshmen were included: Trevor Ford, Ivor Allchurch, John Charles and Cliff Jones, all of them Swansea men. This season is seeing the end of one Swansea City era with another about to begin.

Last weekend, under the lee of dominant Kilvey Hill which overlooks magnificent Mumbles Bay, there was a legends' dinner, led by Terry Medwin and the revered Cliff, a winger as illustrious later with Tottenham, as Billy Meredith was with Manchester City and Manchester United early in the 20th century.

The Swans' final League fixture was played at Vetch Field against Shrewsbury - bar a possible play-off depending on tomorrow's League Two results respectively by Swansea, Scunthorpe and Southend - and they are now moving to their new Stadium of Swansea, which they are sharing with Ospreys, the regional rugby club. It is structurally and commercially one of the most advanced stadiums in Britain.

Swansea's mere two years in the old Division One (1981-83) under the inspired management of John Toshack may not compare with Cardiff's 15 years in three spells, including winning the FA Cup, but Swansea's glories have rested upon the fame of their players, many passing to higher realms.

Indeed, John Charles was poached by Leeds before he had played for the first team, but it is no coincidence that the Fifties era, including the Vetch troupe, should have led to Wales's only appearance in the World Cup finals.

Not even the peerless Charles, one of the best dozen players ever, is treasured in Vetch memories as fondly as Allchurch, an inside-forward of supernatural skills who scored 166 goals in 446 matches (1949-58 and 1965-68) either side of spells with Newcastle and Cardiff.

He moved with the elegance of Fred Astaire, the balance of Nureyev, you never saw him stumble. "He vies with the greatest of all time," Sir Matt Busby said.

A fund is being raised to erect Allchurch's statue outside the new stadium. Esme, his widow, will have her complimentary seat, alongside Prof David Farmer - management academic, club president and also their historian, who played alongside big John - for a last view of Ivor's stage.

Still standing is the main Vetch grandstand, with its central wooden gable, erected in the first season, 1912-13, when Swansea played in the Southern League Second Division. They were elected to the Football League Third Division in 1920-21. A double-decker stand was erected behind the west goal six years later but demolished in the 1990s.

There have been many financial crises during the past 20 years, even the threat of closure, but the fame of Toshack's period, 1978-84, will live as long as the club exists: promoted from the Fourth Division to First in four seasons, the roller-coaster was aided by the signing of former Liverpool colleague, Tommy Smith, in Toshack's second season, with promotion to Division Two.

After a one-year lull, finishing 12th, Swansea soared to the top, bolstered by the return of contemporary local goal-scoring hero, Alan Curtis from Leeds. Ten thousand travelled to Preston for the ultimate promotion match and, in the first season with the elite, Swansea twice defeated Arsenal.

Now, the new £32 million, 20,000 capacity stadium beckons. The club have priority fixture rights and, although the city council own the freehold, a politics-free management company have total administrative authority. Terry Crozier, architect of Sunderland's Stadium of Light, has designed a geometric ellipse with perfect acoustics for musical events.

It is estimated that the attraction of the new stadium will boost attendances next season by at least 60 per cent.

It is projected to stage a minimum of two highlight events in the first season: the Wales-Slovenia World Cup tie in August and the Wales-Fiji rugby fixture in November.

KENNY JACKETT insists he's been convinced for the past few months that Swansea City could end the season in automatic promotion glory.
By 5pm tomorrow the Swans boss hopes to be celebrating "the greatest achievement of my coaching career" - guiding the Vetch Field club straight up a level in only his first full season in charge.

But, as he prepares for Swansea's day of destiny at Gigg Lane in Bury, Jackett says he's long felt confident the climax to the 2004-05 campaign would be a special one for the club and for him personally.

"I've been thinking since January or February that I could be on the verge of achieving something big as a manager," said Jackett.

"So, though I've been thinking what it might feel like on Saturday evening if we're promoted, this week hasn't been a lot different for me.

"But the one thing I can say without any doubt is leading Swansea into League One would be the biggest achievement of my coaching career.

"I've been involved in three previous promotions as a coach - twice with Watford and once with Queens Park Rangers - but this would be the best one of them all.

"Firstly because this would be the most recent, you can't live on what you've done in the past, and secondly because all the others were as coach or assistant manager.

"This would be my first as a manager and, coming little more than 12 months after I came to the club, it would be very special indeed."

It is fair to say more than a few eyebrows were raised when Swansea unveiled Jackett as successor to Brian Flynn at the Vetch in April 2004.

Many Swans fans expected a big-name manager, one with a proven track record, and the scepticism about whether Jackett was the right man for the job was fuelled when he won just one of his first seven games in charge.

Just 12 months on and Jackett, albeit after a ropey start to the campaign, has silenced the doubters by guiding Swansea to within one win - and a sprinkling of good fortune - of a place in League One.

"Looking back to when I first took over at Swansea, I'd have been delighted to find myself in the position I'm in now," said the Vetch manager.

"It wasn't an auspicious start for me, losing five out of seven at the back end of last season, though having seven first-team fixtures at this level was invaluable to me.

"It helped my forward planning and gave me a great opportunity to assess which players I needed to bring in during the summer

"And certainly, if you'd have said at the start of the season that we'd be three points off the top team with one game to go, I'd have taken that.

"We're so close now. In less than 48 hours time, we could be in League One or we could be in the play-offs.

"In an ideal world, we'd already be promoted. We'd have 105 points in the bag, the championship would be secured and we'd be planning an open-top bus ride round the streets of Swansea!

"But real life isn't like that. You've got to fight for everything you get and we're going to have to fight for promotion - whether we achieve it at Bury or whether we have to go through the play-offs."

Jackett and thousands of Swans followers will be hoping for two things that will guarantee automatic promotion tomorrow - victory in Lancashire and defeats for Southend and/or Scunthorpe.

During the match Jackett will keep tabs on how Swansea's top-three rivals are faring at Grimsby and Shrewsbury so he knows how to play his cards at Gigg Lane.

"We have to win and, if at all possible, we have to win well," he said. "We know that's not going to be easy because, along with ourselves and Lincoln, Bury are one of the division's form sides. We've both won five of our last eight games.

"But winning, and hopefully winning well, has to be the aim."

Kenny Jackett has called on Swansea City's fans to turn Gigg Lane into Vetch Field and roar their team into League One on Saturday. Up to 5,000 Swans followers are expected in Lancashire for the final-day promotion decider.

And with Bury averaging crowds of just 2,800 this season, Jackett believes Welsh voices can take over and help end his side's away-day blues.

Swansea have won eight league matches on their travels this season but worryingly, only one of those successes has come in the last eight attempts.

"By the sound of it, 5,000 Jacks are going to take over Manchester this weekend," Jackett said.

"And I think they will almost turn it into a home game for us.

"To have that many fans there generating the sort of atmosphere they do at the Vetch will be a fantastic lift."

Bury may be in the bottom half of the table with nothing to play for, but they are with Swansea in the top three of the division's current form chart having lost just once in 10 matches.

For all their paltry crowds, the Shakers have not been beaten on their own patch in their last five outings.

Yet Jackett hopes the status of the game, coupled with the bumper away following, will see Swansea pull through.

"Our home record has been terrific while we've been inconsistent away," he said.

"But I don't think that will matter on Saturday. It's a one-off game, a cup final for us.

"We realise it will be tough, but the stakes for us are high and the motivation in my squad is good.

"This is a great opportunity for us to make sure we finish a very good season strongly.

"We have to win the game at all costs, then look around the country at the other results and hope Lady Luck is with us.

"If all four top sides get the same result on Saturday, then we'll still be fourth. But we can only worry about ourselves."

That means addressing the flaws of Swansea's last away outing, an abject 2-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers.

Jackett added: "We have to be hard to break down and resist our opponents a little better.

"As well as that, we need to be more clinical on the counter-attack. We must use our set-pieces well and put our chances away."

Just 750 of Swansea's 5,300 ticket allocation for Bury were available at the William Street office this morning.

Cheltenham Town groundsman Mike Heather has been fined £100 by the Football Association. He was charged after an outburst during the Coca-Cola League Two match against Swansea City at Whaddon Road on March 28.

Heather protested to the fourth official after Swansea's Lee Thorpe looked to have stamped on Michael Taylor. The referee took no action.

He was ordered to leave the dug-out and was later charged with abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards a match official.

He did not contest the charge or ask for a personal hearing.

Paul Connor will happily swap a starting spot at Bury this weekend for a place in League One next season. Connor admits he is desperate to retain his striking role alongside Lee Trundle at Gigg Lane after winning a recall last Saturday for the final league fixture at Vetch Field.

But the 13-goal frontman, a substitute in four straight matches before Shrewsbury were seen off, insists he will return to the bench if it means Swansea City clinching promotion.

"Of course I would," he insists.

"It's not about any person or any player at the moment, it's all about the team getting up and out of League Two.

"I'd love to play. It's a massive game which everyone wants to be involved in and being out of the side for a spell makes you hungrier as well.

"But whatever team the manager puts out doesn't matter as long as we win the game.

"If I'm on the bench I'll just support the lads who are out there."

Bury, of course, have little to play for this weekend but are eyeing a successful end to the season as they plan a top-seven bid next year.

And Connor, who has some inside information on the Shakers squad, admits Swansea face an uphill task to get any sort of win on a ground where they have not succeeded since 1978 - never mind the handsome victory they might require to avoid the play-offs.

"I know quite a few lads up there from my time just down the road at Rochdale and they will not make it easy for us," he added.

"They've had a good run at the wrong time for us and they will be fired up for it even though the points don't really matter to them.

"It's never easy at Gigg Lane but, having said that, I haven't yet lost a game there. Touch wood that's not about to change."

For Connor's good run to continue, Swansea's stuttering away form must not.

Kenny Jackett's men have lost their way away from home ever since a 3-2 success at Boston in January seemed to have signalled their intent.

"We've got to be optimistic," Connor added.

"It's going to be like a cup final so I don't think our away form's really going to come into it.

"We've just got to give everything and, with enough fans there to make it feel like a home game, hope that is enough.

"We all want to get out of this division, not just because of the new stadium, but for the sake of our careers as well."

THE only plans Swansea City players and supporters want to make beyond May 7 involve travel brochures and summer holiday destinations.

But Swansea's pragmatic boss Kenny Jackett admits he's been busy preparing for the play-offs in case the Vetch Field club miss out on automatic promotion this weekend.

Jackett knows even a handsome victory at Bury on Saturday might not be enough for Swansea to finish in one of League Two's coveted top-three spots.

The Swans head to Lancashire in fourth place but outside the Utopia of the automatic berths on goal difference alone.

If results elsewhere work against them, Swansea could face the nerve-jangling Russian roulette that is the play-offs regardless of what they achieve up at Gigg Lane.

And Jackett isn't taking any chances. He's been putting contingency plans in place in case the Swans finish outside the top three.

"We have to prepare ourselves for two eventualities - one is automatic promotion and the other is the play-offs," said Jackett.

"You have to be realistic because we could win the game handsomely and still it might not be enough for us to go straight up.

"I have to make sure my players aren't going to be too disappointed if we do end up in the play-offs.

"If you're eighth, ninth or 10th in the table all season and then you get into the play-offs on the final day, you think 'Oh great, this is fantastic.'

"But if you've been in the top three for a long period of time - in our case between September and February - and then you drop down, traditionally that becomes tough mentally.

"First and foremost, the players' mentality has to be that we've got to aim to get into the top three with a win at Bury.

"Should we not achieve that, though, our level of disappointment shouldn't be such that it affects anything we do in the future."

But it's not simply a case of Jackett ensuring his players are in the right frame of mind for a possible play-off shoot-out.

There are also practical considerations and a need to keep a close eye this weekend on Swansea's possible play-off opponents.

"You'd put your money on it being either Northampton or Darlington, who are seventh and eighth respectively at the moment," said Jackett.

"Scouting-wise, we'll make sure we have people watching these teams on Saturday.

"I'll also be arranging a video to make sure I see their games as we could be playing one of them next weekend.

"Beyond that, I'm arranging training grounds and making sure my facilities are available for another month beyond the end of the regular season."

Swans fans will be praying Jackett is able to rip up such best-laid plans and instead reflect on taking the club straight up to League One in his first full season in charge.

But, as disappointing as it will be if Swansea miss out on automatic elevation to the higher division, Jackett insists there would be no need for an outbreak of depression at the Vetch.

"The question, as always, will be 'Is our cup half empty or half full?' said the former Queens Park Rangers No 2.

"Sometimes you've got to be realistic rather than blindly optimistic.

"And I think that if we miss out on the top three, the way we've got to look at it is someone has given us another chance to win promotion.

"Four teams will be involved in the play-offs and we've got to think we'll be the ones who'll come through.

"We'd have the advantage of being at home for the second leg of the play-offs - the last, last, last league game at the Vetch, if you like!

"That'd probably be on a Friday night and then there's a potential play-off final down the road at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff at the end of May.

"You've got to look at these things positively. There's a lot to be positive about."

With just two days to go until this most intriguing of promotion races reaches a thrilling climax, Jackett admits he's surprised by how tight it has been at the top this season.

So little separates the top four sides that Swansea are still in a position to win the title, though to do it they'd have to hammer Bury by five clear goals and hope Yeovil and Scunthorpe both lost.

"It's very unusual to go into the last game of the season with all three top spots still up for grabs," said Jackett, acutely aware that his season-long points target for automatic promotion - 80 - may not be enough after all.

"A few years Paul Sturrock's Plymouth side got promoted with 102 points, but other years it's been a lot tighter.

"This is probably the tightest it's been for a while. It's certainly exciting for the neutral."

KENNY Jackett admits he has already begun plotting for the play-offs in case Swansea City miss out on automatic promotion to Coca-Cola League One this weekend.


Swansea head for Bury knowing even a landslide victory may not be enough to secure a place in League Two's top three.

Still trailing in fourth place despite victory over Shrewsbury last weekend, results elsewhere must be kind if their fate is to be settled on the regular season's final day.

And Jackett admitted: "We have to prepare ourselves for two possible outcomes.

"One of those is going up automatically on Saturday, the other is heading into the play-offs.

"We could go and win handsomely and find that we're still not up, so we've got to be realistic.

"If it goes that way, we'll have to make sure the players aren't too disappointed," Jackett added.

"It's easy if you've been eight, ninth or 10th all season and then you get into the top seven at the last. You think 'Oh great, this is fantastic'.

"But if you've been competing around the top three all season, as we have, then traditionally it is hard mentally. We must be ready for that."

As sides who could still finish seventh, Lincoln, Macclesfield, Northampton and Darlington are all potential play-off opponents, with one of the latter pair looking most likely.

"You can't be sure, so we will make sure we watch all the possible teams," Jackett went on.

"We'll be arranging videos and match reports of their games because we could be playing them the weekend after next. We're arranging training grounds and making sure facilities are available for the rest of the month just in case."

For all his forward planning, Jackett is keen to stress that his team go to Gigg Lane believing they can dodge the play-offs ? even if Bury are one of the Coca-Cola basement's form sides and Swansea's recent away record makes for unpleasant reading.

But he added: "If we don't achieve it, our disappointment level can't be such that it affects anything we do in the future.

"The way to look at it is that if we end up in the play-offs, we've been given another chance.

"Even if we miss out on goal difference or by one point or whatever, we have to realise that there's still another promotion place to play for.

"We'll have the second play-off game at home on a Friday night and then a possible final in Wales, so there's lots to be positive about."

ANDY Robinson will join thousands of travelling fans in the stands at Bury this weekend desperate to see Swansea City win promotion to League One.


Robinson is still smarting from the sending off at Bristol Rovers which has ruled him out of Swansea's final push.

But the Scouse midfielder aims to play his part at Gigg Lane as Kenny Jackett's men seek the victory that could sneak them into League Two's top three.

"It's devastating for me not to be involved given the way it's all happened," he said.

"But I'm just a supporter now and I'll be backing the rest of the lads all the way.

"That means doing my bit in training and helping them get fired up in the dressing room for Saturday because it's such a massive game.

"I'm just going to try to be the 12th man.

"I'll be in with all the rest of the fans at Bury, cheering them on just like everyone else and being as passionate as I can. There might not be anyone else shouting louder than me after everything that's happened."

Banned for last Saturday's final league match at the Vetch, Robinson must sit out another three games after seeing red for the second time this season.

Should Swansea end up in the play-offs, he could return for the final if they make it to Cardiff.

Few would be surprised if the talented 25-year-old ended up having a major impact at the Millennium Stadium after his undulating season.

What price a Robinson winner to send Swansea up?

"Maybe it's written for me," he said through a smile.

"But much as it would be a magnificent day out for everybody, no-one wants to go down that road.

"We will all be much happier if someone grabs the vital goal at Bury and we end up getting automatic promotion.

"This club is a sleeping giant. We've got the new stadium coming and we need to be moving forward.

"We don't feel we belong in this division and I think other clubs think that too."

Robinson, sent off at Shrewsbury in November, still feels hard done by over his Rovers red, when he walked for butting Ryan Williams despite the lack of any apparent contact.

"I'm disgusted about what happened," he added.

"It's not in my nature to do what their lad did, but that's all I'm going to say.

"These things happen in football and you just have to get on with it."

One small consolation for Robinson is that he will be allowed to play in the FAW Premier Cup final at the Vetch against Wrexham, scheduled for May 11 if Swansea avoid the play-offs.

The play-off dates have now been fixed - and both semi-final legs, as well as the final at the Millennium Stadium, will be televised on Sky.

The first leg of the semi - the away leg should the Swans be involved - is on Sunday, May 15, at 5.15pm, while the return game is on Friday, May 20, at 7.45pm.

ROBERTO MARTINEZ believes Swansea City have a vital psychological edge over their promotion rivals - insisting, "If we win on Saturday, I really believe we'll be up."

And part of the Swans skipper's determination to realise the dream stems from a belief Kenny Jackett's side would find life a lot easier in League One than the basement division they've been stuck in for the past four years.

Swansea's hopes of stepping straight up a level are on a knife edge as they prepare for Saturday's final-day clash at Bury level on points with Southend, who sit one place above them in third.

Three points at Gigg Lane would not be enough for the Swans to clinch a coveted top-three spot if Southend beat Grimsby by a bigger margin and Scunthorpe avoid defeat at Shrewsbury.

But Martinez is confident a Welsh win in Lancashire will be enough to propel Swansea upwards as he doubts Southend are strong enough mentally to win in their visit to Cleethorpes.

"I think it's down to what we do," he said. "And, if we can get three points against Bury, I really believe we'll be up. I think that will be enough.

"Obviously it's very tight because we're level on points with Southend, who are one place above us with a slightly better goal difference.

"But I know how they're going to be feeling now. They got beaten at home on Saturday (1-0 against Yeovil) and now they need to get a result away from home.

"I don't think Southend are in the same frame of mind as we are. We're really confident and looking forward to the game, but I think Southend's situation is a lot harder than the one we're in.

"They're in a situation where the season could end in catastrophe.

"A couple of weeks ago they were top of the league and now they have to get a result at Grimsby to be certain of going straight up.

"Personally, I think they can't wait to see their season come to an end.

"We know what we have to do. We have to go to Bury and get three points and, if we do that, I think we'll get a place in the top three."

There are, of course, several other permutations that could ensure Swansea clinch promotion by the shortest route.

One involves Swansea winning at Bury and Scunthorpe losing at Shrewsbury, a scenario that would render events in Cleethorpes academic.

And, after Swansea were given a major scare by the Shrews during last Saturday's narrow 1-0 Vetch win, Martinez believes the Gay Meadow club could do them a favour this weekend.

"You have to take into account Shrewsbury perhaps got a bit of extra motivation from the atmosphere at the Vetch and wanted to spoil the party," said the 31-year-old Spanish midfielder.

"But I'm certain, if they perform the way they did against us, Scunthorpe will have to play really well to overcome them.

"Some of their young lads played really well and, as a team, they kept going until the very last minute.

"Despite their difference in league positions, I think Scunthorpe will have a hard game at Shrewsbury."

Martinez was outstanding in Saturday's win, evoking memories of how influential he was in Swansea's successful fight against relegation that climaxed with that unforgettable 4-2 final-day win over Hull.

Two years on and the former Real Zaragoza midfielder is ready for one final push to ensure Jackett's men get the chance to exhibit their talents on a higher stage.

"Swansea have been suffering so much from being at the wrong end of the Football League," said Martinez, who has played higher up the divisional pyramid with Wigan.

"We need to put the club where it deserves to be and get promoted to a higher division.

"And I really believe that if we do get up, we won't look back. We wouldn't be a 'one-season wonder.'

"As a football team, I think we could adapt to a higher division a lot better than playing in League Two.

"Personally speaking, promotion would be a fantastic feeling.

"I came here for a big challenge and that was to help keep Swansea in the Football League. The second big challenge is to get promoted, and I won't rest happy until that happens."

VETCH FIELD great Wyndham Evans today backed the class of 2005 to do what John Toshack's Swansea City team did in 1981 by clinching promotion in Lancashire.

Back then Toshack's men needed to beat Preston North End to seal a place in the old Division One.
And though Kenny Jackett's team are bidding only for a climb to League One - what was Division Three - Evans believes the end-of-the-Vetch factor makes Saturday's trip to Bury as significant as that unforgettable Deepdale afternoon.

"To get promoted would mean everything to Kenny Jackett and to the players," said Llanelli-born Evans, who played for Swansea in all four Football League divisions.

"Going to Bury and winning will be just as important for them as going to Preston was for us and it would be fantastic if they could go up in the last season at the Vetch.

"Getting into League One in time for the new stadium would be perfect and I think they will because whenever they have needed to win this season, they have done it.

"Last Saturday against Shrewsbury was a prime example. Okay, they didn't play that well and the goalkeeper was outstanding, but they got the points."

Defender Evans played for Swansea between 1971 and 1985, racking up almost 400 appearances along the way.

He was one of three dozen Swans legends paraded at the Vetch as the old ground said farewell to league football last weekend.

He added: "We spoke on Saturday and we would all like to wish the current side all the best next weekend.

"When we went to Preston we knew a win would get us up. This is slightly different because it also depends on results elsewhere, but I have a feeling that a win will be good enough for them."

Leighton James, Tommy Craig and Jeremy Charles were on the scoresheet 24 years ago as Swansea swept into the top flight in front of 10,000 travelling fans.

With around 5,000 expected in Bury, Evans reckons those in the stands can tip the balance in the away side's favour.

"My great memory of Preston was the truly amazing number of supporters," he added.

"It was like arriving at the Vetch, with black and white everywhere, and when we ran out on to the pitch we couldn't see a Preston fan anywhere.

"All the ex-players spoke about the terrific atmosphere at the Shrewsbury game and I believe Swansea fans are the best in the country.

"It was almost as if they wouldn't allow us to lose in Preston, and I think the same thing will happen this weekend."

BURY are urging their fans to turn out in force when Swansea City's travelling army flood Lancashire on Saturday.

Gigg Lane attracted just 2,400 fans for the Shakers' last home game despite the fact that Graham Barrow's team are one of League Two's form sides.

A similar turnout this weekend could mean the natives are outnumbered two to one as Swansea hope to take 5,000 fans.

His side beaten only once in their last 10 games, boss Barrow pleaded: "We cannot be the away side next weekend.

His side beaten only once in their last 10 games, boss Barrow pleaded: "We cannot be the away side next weekend. We have to make sure that our lot are there and are noisy.

"It's important to keep our good run going right up until the final game of the season and, with the fans behind them, the players will come out and see it through right to the end."

Bury's latest success, a 1-0 win at Notts County last Saturday, pushed them up to 15th in the table, 11 points shorts of the play-off places.

"I'm glad the game with Swansea now has a bit of spice in it," Barrow added.

"It will be a good atmosphere with 5,000 Glyn Garners (Bury's Welsh goalkeeper) in the crowd and it's up to us to perform.

"The only thing we didn't do at Notts County was score a few more goals."

Sheffield Wednesday or Boston on a Tuesday. Nottingham Forest or Ian Atkins and his merry men.

Swansea City can still save their new 20,000-capacity home at Morfa from the Coca-Cola basement with promotion to League One after signing off at Vetch Field with victory over Shrewsbury Town.
In style? In the style of a mid-table side more like.

There was no vintage showing to grace the last league fixture at the Vetch, no last spectacular high after 93 undulating years.

The only rousing climax on Saturday came when Max Boyce reached the last line of the national anthem before the game.

Presumably as a result of the pressure of the occasion, Swansea did not perform like a team destined to escape the Bostons and the bullies from Bristol Rovers with automatic promotion.

But crucially, Kenny Jackett's players eked out one last Vetch success which means they complete their fixtures at Bury next weekend knowing another win could mean a place in the Utopia that is the top three.

Still fourth in the table, if they miss out now it will be by an agonising margin.

Southend, who go to Grimsby next weekend, sit third courtesy of their ever-so-slightly better goal difference.

Fresh from thumping Atkins's lot 4-0 on Saturday - so much for the favour, Ian - Scunthorpe travel to face a Shrewsbury side who performed so admirably at the Vetch that they deserved a draw.

Yeovil, in pole position after their laudable success at Southend but still within sight, host a Lincoln side battling only for the play-offs having failed to overcome Darlington on Saturday.

So next weekend is not just about what Swansea do at Gigg Lane and portable radios will be the must-have accessory for thousands of travelling fans.

"It's very tight up there," said Jackett, already bracing himself for what promises to be an extraordinarily tense afternoon after Saturday's nervy 90 minutes.

"Many people have told me it would come down to the last day and here we are. We've got 77 points from 45 games and now we go to Bury with everything riding on it."

Victory in Lancashire looks essential, for Southend would seem unlikely to lose at Grimsby. And ideally, given the Shrimpers' present advantage, Swansea need a handsome away success.

"We're going to need a big win or other results to go for us," Jackett went on.

"First of all, though, we just have to try to win our game and then go all out within reason. If we haven't got the ball there's no point five people standing up front waiting for it because then we'll concede and lose the game.

"We will just do everything we can to win and to do it by as many goals as possible.

"Maybe," he added, managing a smile, "we'll see if we can play with four balls." If Swansea were going to stack up the goals anywhere in this final week, you would have thought it would have been on home turf.

In a season that threatens to be haunted by regrets, their failure to do so may be the latest.

"We have had opportunities to go away at the top in the last few months and we haven't taken them," Jackett conceded.

"The good thing is that other sides have done exactly the same thing and so nothing's decided at the top going into the final weekend.

"It's strange really. All the fans came onto the pitch at the end and usually by this stage everything is pretty much decided, but our season is still ahead of us."

Chances are the campaign will go on at least 10 days longer if Swansea continue in their current form.

Beaten badly at Rovers - the 11th away defeat of the year, remember - they were nowhere close to their best back, for what 11,000 fans hope will be the final time, on this particular patch of home turf.

"No question," Adrian Forbes admitted, "we will have to improve."

The hard-working winger was nevertheless in upbeat mood. Not surprising, really, since he had just supplied the last league goal at the Vetch.

After Kevin Street's clumsiness had cleared a path for Swansea to break, Kevin McLeod collected possession midway into Shrewsbury's half.

Revealing some of his talent, the Scouse winger measured a pass to his colleague on the right and Forbes planted a shot into the top corner of Joe Hart's net.

Eight minutes gone and 1-0 up, the Vetch's biggest crowd for a regular-season league fixture since Cardiff came to town on Boxing Day 1989 prepared for a final flourish.

But that was as good as it got.

One dazzling run aside, this was an afternoon when even Lee Trundle's tricks did not work.

Kristian O'Leary lashed a half-volley over the bar but in a match that in spells made General Election campaigning look interesting, what action there was came at the other end.

Four times Kelvin Langmead tested Willy Gueret, four times the Frenchman had the answers.

Two of the saves were magnificent, though Gueret could have done nothing to prevent Langmead two minutes from the end had the Shrews striker not sent his point-blank header straight into the goalkeeper's arms.

"If he had put it two yards either side of me, I don't think I would have been able to make the save," Gueret confessed with a dollop of relief.

"We wouldn't have won the game and that would have been a disaster.

"I think I got lucky there."

Fingers crossed for more good fortune when all is decided next weekend.

Swansea manager Kenny Jackett will be kept informed of his promotion rivals' respective matches via mobile phone on Saturday. The fourth-placed Swans travel to Bury knowing even a handsome away win may not be enough to secure them automatic promotion if results elsewhere go against them. By the same token, they could actually lose to the in-form Shakers and still go up if Southend slip up badly at Grimsby. Yeovil's home clash with Lincoln and Scunthorpe's trip to Shrewsbury will also have a bearing on Swansea's fate. Jackett said: "I'll have the mobile on at Bury to keep in touch with what's going on elsewhere. "In fact, I'll have two just in case there are any problems with signals and they'll both be fully charged. We'll definitely need to be aware of what's going on in the other games and two phones should cover it," he told the South Wales Evening Post.

KENNY Jackett will hope for magic numbers to appear on his mobile phone when Swansea City bid for a place in League One at Bury on Saturday.

Jackett?s side head for Gigg Lane knowing even a handsome away win may not be enough to lift them into League Two's automatic promotion spots if results elsewhere go against them.

By the same token, they could actually lose to the in-form Shakers and still go up if Southend slip up badly at Grimsby Town.

Events at Huish Park, where Yeovil host Lincoln City, and at Gay Meadow, where Scunthorpe take on Shrewsbury, will also have a bearing on Swansea's fate.

And Jackett revealed: "I'll have the mobile on at Bury to keep in touch with what's going on elsewhere.

"In fact, I'll have two just in case there are any problems with signals and they'll both be fully charged.

"We'll definitely need to be aware of what's going on in the other games and two phones should cover it."

Chief scout and former Swansea player Huw Lake looks like getting the job of keeping the manager informed.

"You need someone who is reliable and not too emotional," Jackett added.

"I'll be getting texts telling me scores and I'll certainly be checking what's going on at half-time and probably after 60 minutes or so.

"On days like this you hear things going around the crowd and you wonder whether it's good news or it's bad news or whether someone's just spotted a nice looking girl!

"But seriously, I need to know because it could affect my substitutions and when or how I change the formation.

"If, for instance, Southend have the same scoreline as us, we'll have to go in search of another goal."

Swansea have no fresh injury problems as they prepare to face a Bury side who have lost only once in their last 10 matches.

"It's a game between two of the division's in-form teams, but you have to play everyone over the season and we don't mind," Jackett added.

Around 3,000 away tickets have so far sold for the weekend, with Swansea expecting most of their 5,300 allocation to go.

The club's owners, meanwhile, have expressed their gratitude to all those who worked behind the scenes to ensure the last ever league fixture at the Vetch passed successfully.

"We would like to thank Steve McLelland, Huw Cooze, John Gregory, Nigel Hamer, Lesa Hitchings and KevinJohns for all their efforts surrounding the marquee events," said director David Morgan.

"And we would also like to thank all the full-time and match-day staff at the Vetch for making sure everything ran like clockwork."

Music, romance and a cliff-hanging finale. Throw in a touch of farce and an emotional farewell and it's clear the Vetch saved one of its most gripping episodes for last.
Swansea City may have grasped three points on Saturday to keep alive their ambitions of a top-three finish and automatic promotion, but this particular afternoon was about so much more than just sport.
This was an afternoon crammed full of emotion, tension and memories as the old ground took centre stage one last time.

A ground graced by such talents as Allchurch, Charles, Griffiths and Gwyther waved goodbye to a side which included the likes of Trundle, Connor, Gurney and Gueret.

It also said farewell to its fans - the self-styled Jack Army.

They let no-one down.

By 2.10pm there were more in the ground than most League Two clubs can expect come kick-off time. Wave upon wave of black and white shirts stacked high into the North Bank.

It was quite a sight.

And they sang. They sang and they chanted - almost non-stop.

Before the game they added backing vocals to West End star Katherine Davies's belting rendition of My Way.

They joined in with Max Boyce as he cranked the emotion up a notch by delivering the national anthem. Like it needed cranking up.

And when the game started they game into their own. Swansea Till I Die and Kenny Jackett's Barmy Army were belted out with passion and venom.

Somewhat touchingly, a section of the main stand also launched into a song dedicated to the late and much-missed Robbie James.

How they would have loved to have seen him join the pre-match parade of legends led by Alan Curtis and whipped in by John Toshack.

But it wasn't only the legends who grabbed the limelight in the pre-match build-up.

A cult hero - in the shape of club mascot Cyril the Swan - married sweetheart Sybil the Duck in front of the North Bank.

And what a pair they make. Cyril is no oil painting, but his new missus is something else.

Ducks do not come any uglier. Or fatter.

In fairness, Jackett's team did their bit to stop the game turning into a sideshow, though if it hadn't been for the impeccable Willy Gueret, the post-match pitch invasion would have been a shade more muted.

And that's where the farce comes in. For as futile exercises go, it ranks up there with the best.

With four minutes remaining, the PA announcer asked the crowd to stay off the pitch at the final whistle so the players could perform a lap of honour. The crowd responded with 'On the pitch, on the pitch, on the pitch', to the tune of 'Here we go.'

Seconds later the first of thousands began clambering the North Bank's perimeter fence. Stewards gave it up as a lost cause.

Quite right, too. The moment referee Ray Oliver signalled league football at Vetch Field had breathed its last - at 4.51pm - so the mass invasion got under way.

Fans swarmed in front of the Centre Stand. Still singing, still chanting. Others just stood in the stand itself, some taking photos with mobile phones of what, it has to be said, was a rather impressive picture.

The family of one woman decided to leave and called on her to hurry up. "I'm not coming," she said.

"I'm saving my seat for the play-offs."

It was the moment reality bit. And that was that. Gone. Finished. No more.

So remember the time. Nine minutes to five on April 30, 2005, was a massive moment in Swansea City's history.

It was a massive moment in Swansea's history too.

ALAN CURTIS admitted he had tears welling up in his eyes as he said farewell to a place he's called home for more than 34 years.
In one capacity or another, the former Wales international has been an almost constant figure at the Vetch since signing on as a player in 1971.

So it was no wonder that Curtis - one of 36 Swans legends who paraded round the pitch before kick-off on Saturday - felt quite so moved as he took his place for the last league game at the Vetch.

"I knew it was going to be emotional, but it still surprised me how emotional I became. I have to admit I had tears in my eye at one point, said Curtis, who was mobbed by autograph hunters and fans with mobile phone cameras keen to be pictured with someone so readily associated with Swansea's cherished old ground.

"Doing the lap of honour especially gave me a lump in my throat.

"It was terrific to be surrounded by so many ex-players. Some of whom I haven't seen in a number of years."

But Curtis added of the pre-match walkabout, "To be honest, I think everybody was a little bit embarrassed by it.

"We never really wanted to do it because we didn't want any disruptions to the first team - even though we've all got massive egos and it was one last opportunity to go out there!

"The most important thing was Swansea winning a football match."

Whether as a player, coach or assistant manager, Curtis has experienced countless ups and downs during his long stay at the Vetch.

But the current Swansea youth team boss said Saturday's post-match scenes were something new to him.

"I don't think I've ever seen as many people on the pitch at the end of the game - be it to celebrate us clinching promotion or the relief at avoiding relegation after the Hull City game two years ago," Curtis said.

"I just think there was a real undercurrent of emotion running through the whole day.

"It's been a cracking weekend. The nice sunshine wasn't typical Swansea weather and I think it was a fitting end to the Vetch that we picked up three points.

"That was the most important thing. I think it was one of those days when it was just meant to be.

"It would've needed a bomb maybe to stop us winning.

"Hopefully we can win promotion now at the end of the season."

GOALKEEPING hero Roger Freestone was a notable absentee from the array of Swansea legends paraded round the pitch before kick-off as part of the Vetch Field's farewell festivities.

By the end of an emotionally-draining afternoon, though, the man who took Freestone's place between the Swansea posts was fully entitled to do a lap of honour of his own.

While the history books will list Adrian Forbes as scorer of the old ground's last league goal, it was shot-stopper Willy Gueret who ensured a wonderful day of celebration was not tinged with disappointment.

More importantly, as far as the club's automatic promotion hopes are concerned, the series of stunning saves Swansea's favourite Frenchman has guaranteed a nerve-shredding final-day decider at Bury.

If Swans fans thought they'd been through the emotional mangle during Saturday's laborious victory over Shrewsbury, they'll be preparing themselves for something else entirely up at Gigg Lane.

Here comes the maths. Beat Bury and the Swans will be promoted if Southend fail to win at Grimsby and/or Scunthorpe lose at Shrewsbury.

A point would be enough if Southend lose in Cleethorpes, but if the Shrimpers picked up a draw it would then be decided on goal difference.

Even if Kenny Jackett's side end the season with defeat by a one-goal margin, they could still squeeze straight up to League One if Southend lost by three clear goals.

Permutations, permutations. But, as Swansea prepare to pack calculators next to the water bottles, the message from Jackett is simple.

"We've got to try to win the Bury game by as many goals as possible," said the Swans boss.

"We might even have to try and play with four balls! In all seriousness, though, the first thing we've got to do is win the game.

"There's no use having five guys up front if we haven't got the ball. It's going to be a nervy occasion for a lot of people, but we'll be ready for it. We'll give it everything we've got."

You'd have thought the Swans had already wrapped up promotion by the way thousands of fans poured onto the pitch to form a black and white lake below the directors' box as soon as the final whistle was blown on Saturday's historic final Vetch league game.

So deafening were the fans' songs that Jackett might have been better off trying to harmonise with them than make a futile attempt at a speech when he and his players finally emerged from the dressing room to rapturous applause.

"I couldn't quieten the crowd down enough to talk," Jackett conceded.

"Had I been able to talk to the fans, first off, I'd have thanked them for their support - not just in this match but over the whole season because it's been magnificent. But I'd have also said that we're in the unusual situation where everything is still ahead of us.

"Most of the time, you get to the penultimate game of the season and things are pretty much cut and dried.

"But this time the season's major turning-point is still ahead of us. In that respect, it's a bit strange to have a pitch invasion like that before you've actually achieved anything or your fate has been sealed.

"Lastly, though, I'd have said to the fans, 'Let's get as many of you up to Bury as we possibly can.' We're going to need them."

Jackett needn't fret on that score since these fans are strangers to the notion of "compassion fatigue".

On Saturday even the neutral supporter couldn't have failed to be moved by the occasion as 11,469 - the biggest attendance for a regular league match at the Vetch in 16 years - squeezed into the well-worn stands to say goodbye to Swansea's home of 93 years.

Some of those without tickets had clambered onto the neighbouring rooftops or craned their necks over the giant advertising hoardings in the corner just to be part of this slice of Welsh footballing history.

What a pity, then, that such an unforgettable occasion - Max Boyce leading renditions of Bread of Heaven and Hymns and Arias and all - should produce such a forgettable match.

Expectancy levels were raised when Forbes brilliantly found the top corner of the net from 16 yards on eight minutes after Lee Trundle had held up a long Sam Ricketts pass and then laid the ball off to Kevin McLeod, who found Forbes loitering unmarked on the right wing.

But the Swansea goal was to live a charmed life for the rest of the match as Gueret pulled off four fantastic saves to leave the man who had each attempt, Kelvin Langmead, exasperated.

And the hosts' performance lacked any real cohesion, with too many passes going astray and too many balls being played in behind the strikers as the Swans tried to keep the tempo of the match high.

While there were some fine performances down the spine of the side - Garry Monk and Roberto Martinez were outstanding - the normally-lethal Trundle fluffed all his lines in front of goal.

Shrewsbury really should've gone home with at least a point, especially in light of Langmead's incredible miss five minutes from time when he headed the ball straight into Gueret's clutches from just two yards when it appeared far easier to score.

"Perhaps the pressure of the occasion did get to the players," Jackett said.

"We can certainly play a hell of a lot better than we did. Willy pulled off three magnificent saves in the first half and the man-of-the-match accolade he received was fully justified.

"In the second half we had chances to put the game away, but we don't do things easily here. We like to keep biting our nails up to the 93rd minute! But, when all is said and done, it's all about the result. A result that keeps us in contention for automatic promotion, which is everything to us."

Yet, with the realisation that two more goals would've seen Swansea move into third place, Jackett admitted he's consumed by thoughts of what might have been.

"If we don't go up, there will be disappointment because we've had opportunities over the past couple of months to really capitalise on the position we were in and pull away," he said.

"But you have to be realistic, and I believe you finish where you should in the league. You get just about what you deserve."

Straight up to League One or the torture of the play-offs? In just five days' time Swansea will finally discover just what they deserve.

THANK God for Gueret, thank God for the Glovers, just thank God.
Swansea ended their league days at the Vetch with three points to keep the promotion dream alive, courtesy of Adrian Forbes' eighth-minute strike.

But not only did the Swans fans have to rely on Yeovil's late winner at Southend to put the top three within reach, they also had the goalkeeping performance of Gueret to thank for earning the points against Shrewsbury.

Three times he produced saves to deny Shrews striker Kelvin Langmead, saves that if they had been made in front of Premiership cameras, we would be seeing for many a season.

But if the packed crowd, all there to say one last goodbye to the Vetch, thought heavenly forces were pulling in their favour after that, they were left in no doubt come the final whistle.

After nervously hanging on in the final stages, it looked all over when Langmead was afforded a free header inside the Swansea area - only for the ball to bounce into the hands of Gueret.

Hopefully the Swans haven't used up their entire quota of luck with a make-or-break game at Bury still to come. With just goal difference keeping Kenny Jackett's side out of the top three, the Swans boss admitted they will go for it at Gigg Lane.

"We need a win and a big win unless someone does us a favour," said Jackett.

"First up, we have to try and win the game and there's no use having five guys up front if we haven't got the ball.

"We'll go for it but we have to do that within reason - perhaps we should try and use four balls!"

The points were all that mattered on a day where everybody demanded a win, whether because of the historic occasion or the stakes of promotion.

But Jackett accepted the performance wasn't up there with the best of them.

"It was a nervous game and perhaps the occasion did get to the players," he said. "We didn't play well and have played a lot better over the season.

"But it was all about the result and we got that. Willy Gueret was fantastic and made some terrific saves to keep us in it, but although a couple more goals would have been nice we wouldn't have deserved it."

To be fair, Swansea deserved their early opener and eventual winner.

After what seemed an age of pre-match build up, the team kicked off to a deafening reception - and went for it from the off.

Kevin McLeod - in for the suspended Andy Robinson - looked dangerous, and it was down the former QPR and Everton wideman's side that the opening came. Lee Trundle was able to cushion Sam Ricketts' cross despite a push in the back, and while the Shrews slept, McLeod picked out the unmarked Forbes.

The winger took his time, his decision to pick his spot rather than go around goalkeeper Joe Hart paying dividends and gave the North Bank another excuse to go bananas.

A mesmerising run from Trundle two minutes later - complete with step-overs, roll-overs and flicks - almost produced a second as Paul Connor went within inches of connecting with his cross-shot.

It wasn't all plain sailing in the opening exchanges, the pacy counter-attacking style of Shrewsbury causing its fair share of problems with Andy Gurney in particular having difficulty in keeping the impressive Neil Ashton quiet.

And it was from a 13th-minute Ashton cross that the visitors created their first chance, his ball finding Kevin Langmead whose header was brilliantly stopped by flying Frenchman Gueret, withRicketts dealing with the rebound.

Jackett's instructions to keep the tempo high and refuse Shrewsbury time to disrupt had clearly filtered through to his players, who took free-kicks quickly whenever possible and ensured everything they did was done with pace.

But that in itself caused problems at times as the Swans neglected careful passing for the sake of speed and Gueret had to be called into action again on 17 minutes, again brilliantly denying a Langmead shot.

And on 35 minutes Gueret completed a hat-trick of fine saves as he tipped Langmead's header over the bar.

The blazing sun, which had kept to the script and covered the Vetch for kick-off, disappeared as the teams returned after the interval, as did Gurney for Austin with Ricketts given the chance - in front of watching Wales boss John Toshack - to nullify Ashton's threat.

But as the hosts' chances became few and far between, anxiety crept into the Swans' play. More and more forward balls failed to find their man and more and more Shrewsbury attacks came as a result.

The high-speed football that Swansea had enjoyed in the opening 45 minutes was now being played by the visitors and even though Gueret was not required to add to his save tally, the tension rose.

Leon Britton did his best to orchestrate something down the left side, finding McLeod who somehow wriggled his way through but Trundle - for once - failed to trouble the opposition goalkeeper as his 73rd-minute effort sailed over.

Kris O'Leary tried his luck a few minutes later, but the effort was always going to be the victim of the tight angle and that was the end of Swansea's opportunities to make it comfortable.

And so on to the nervy closing moments. Gueret the benefactor of a slice of luck his performance deserved when Langmead's free header bounced kindly at the big man's feet.

Having thrown it away in similar circumstances against Rochdale, Jackett's men didn't buckle this time and with news from Roots Hall being whispered through the crowd, the party could begin again at the final whistle.

But while the celebrations were ones to remember, the real occasion will be at Bury next week.

SAMSON had his hair, Swansea have the North Bank. Well, had the North Bank.
The source of Swansea's strength waved goodbye to their home yesterday as the curtain finally fell on league football at Vetch Field, 85 years after it first arrived.

And although the game itself hardly did justice to the occasion, it didn't seem to matter all that much to the 11,469 crammed into the ground like sardines.

A few more clambered up ladders to have a sneaky peak over the wall or from surrounding rooftops.

Thankfully, no prisoners from the local jailhouse made it on to theirs. I know, because I was there.

But had they done so, no doubt they would have found it hard not to be swept up in the party atmosphere.

The raw emotion that spilled forth when the final whistle sounded put the day up there with any of the heart-stopping moments the Vetch has witnessed in its 93-year history.

There will be dissenting voices of course. "What about the day in 2003 when we beat Hull to stay in the Football League or the time mighty Leeds were thrashed 5-1, 24 years ago on our First Division debut?" they will say.

The debate will rightly rage for years over which was the more memorable.

But there was so much about yesterday that tugged on the heart strings of not just Swansea fans but anyone else who was in the vicinity.

April 30, 2005, will live long in the memory of Swans fans. Something which there can be no denying is that the dilapidated ground which became so familiar to fans that it was known affectionately by its first name has seen it all since the gates first opened for a Southern League game with Cardiff in September 1912 - the highs, the lows and plenty of in betweens.

Now, just like the Dell, Roker Park and countless other famous Football League fortresses of yesteryear, it has come time to say goodbye.

But despite the big send-off, it's not quite over yet.

They will all be back again in a few weeks time because even if Swansea manage to avoid the lottery of the play-offs they still have an FAW Cup final against Wrexham to play.

As the match-day programme pointed out it will be "like Westlife doing a turn at an Elvis concert. A sideshow."

Before they do play again, they will need two new penalty spots as yesterday's are by now taking pride of place in a pair of local gardens. And while the ground staff are at it one or two replacement seats may also be in order.

"How many final games are they going to have at the Vetch?" was one common query. But to the Swans faithful this was the one that really mattered.

There aren't too many fans who can remember those early days.

But for those reared on a diet of Charles, Nurse, Medwin, Allchurch, Curtis, James and Toshack there were tears in the eyes.

There were plenty of younger fans present who must have wondered who these strange old men in suits walking around the pitch to boisterous applause were.

But mostly, yesterday was about celebration. And nowhere was the party more fierce than in the famed North Bank.

Infamous may be a more apt description. Certainly for those opposing players or unfortunate officials who have suffered as the fans have vented their collective spleen.

The cramped terrace has been the heartbeat of the club through the years and it can only be hoped that a similar level of noise can be generated when the Swans move to their plush new £24m Morfa Stadium.

Some of the ditties they belt out could do with some improvement - not least the racist chants that greet any visiting team from the wrong side of the Severn or those aimed at the owner of a certain rival club just down the M4. Nevertheless, the North Bank - loved by Swansea, loathed by everyone else - has been responsible for its fair share of results and one or two "sinister" penalty decisions in the past.

Not so much a 12th man as a cattle prod in the ribs of the officials.

Referees could at least hide away in the centre of the pitch when it got too hot to handle, but the lot of the linesman and the opposition left back was considerably less happy.

Even before the final whistle had sounded yesterday the crowd had spilled on to the pitch with the men in black running for dear life.

The fans assembled at the advertising hoardings as if preparing to leap out of the trenches and pile into battle. The wry-faced police and stewards knew what was coming but stood powerless to stop the tide of black and white-shirted fans headed for the hallowed turf.

In the end they simply opened the gates and left them to it - it just seemed easier that way.

The Swans massive converged on the directors' box demanding to see their current-day heroes.

Cyril the Swan was thrown to the baying mob, yet that failed to quell them and the noise was such that even if the microphone he clasped had been working, manager Kenny Jackett wouldn't have been heard. Eventually he just gave up as well.

Adrian Forbes will go down in a rich Vetch history and countless trivia books no doubt as the last Swans man to score a goal there.

Yet his solitary strike in the eighth minute - which seemed to take an absolute age to find the net as the North Bank held its collective breath - ensured the afternoon developed into a nervy affair.

The weather gods were clearly Jacks as the sun blazed down on the seaside party down below.

Even with an hour left before kick off the atmosphere inside the ground, which is shoehorned between rows of terraced housing and the local prison, had already reached boiling point and the temperature just kept on rising as both nerves and tempers became frayed.

The mothers of Kevin McLeod and Lee Trundle were probably better off not hearing some of the feedback being dolled out to their beloved sons. The North Bank faithful may be the club's most loyal fans but they have also been its harshest critics.

The club had asked for a sea of black and white from supporters and most responded with a team of moustachioed players from the Charles "Charlie" Charles era the pick of the bunch. A loan badger, Scooby Doo and a smoking nun also stood out in the crowd.

Cyril the Swan turned from jailbird to husband when the club mascot tied the knot with a duck before kick-off while Max Boyce belted out Land of my Fathers and local songstress Catherine Davies got more than she bargained for when singing My Way.

The sight of a team of touring rugby-playing Kiwi youngsters doing a haka at half-time also helped take minds away from the tension. The game was vital to Swansea's promotion hopes but the fans knew their dream was in the safe hands of goalkeeper Willy Gueret. The Frenchman and his current team mates may not deserve to join the legendary ranks at the Vetch just yet but their names, as the final team to play a game there, will ensure they go down in history.

So farewell to the Vetch. It's been long, it's been fun, but now it's over.

Swansea City 1 v 0 Shrewsbury Town

Swansea manager Kenny Jackett was relieved after his side had come through an emotional day to beat Shrewsbury 1-0 at Vetch Field.

On a day of high drama that signalled the end of league football at the stadium after 93 years, Swansea edged out a spirited Shrewsbury outfit to take the automatic promotion chase to the last game of the season.

Adrian Forbes struck the only goal in the eighth minute, but Swansea were never allowed to settle and were indebted to goalkeeper Willy Gueret, who made a number of breathtaking stops as the Shrews threatened to spoil the party.

Jackett said: "It was a very emotional afternoon and I think it got to my players as we can certainly perform better than that.

"But the result was the important thing and now it's up to me to calm the squad down in readiness for Bury next Saturday.

"We will sit down at the start of the week and discuss how best we can win at Gigg Lane and also score a few goals.

"I've been saying all season that we needed at least 80 points and that's proving to be the case. We are already assured of a play-off place and if we don't win promotion it will be doubly disappointing."

When Forbes netted his early goal it should have been the stepping stone for a big victory over lowly Shrewsbury, but Swansea failed to trouble Joe Hart in the visitors' goal and Gueret came to his side's rescue late in the game when they were under the threat of an equaliser.

Shrewsbury had a clever ball player in Sam Aiston, who gave experienced Andy Gurney a torrid time in the first half, so much so that he was substituted at the interval. Kevin Austin replaced him but switched to left-back, leaving Wales international Sam Ricketts to face the visitors' danger man.

Jackett added: "I decided to make the switch as Aiston was causing us problems down the flank and it was from his crosses that they had their scoring opportunities."

In the absence of manager Gary Peters, who was on a scouting mission, the Shrews had experienced Mick Wadsworth in charge.

He said: "I was very pleased with our performance but not with the result as we made several good chances.

"The second half was a bit scrappy but we came on strongly in the closing stages without scoring the goal our performance deserved."

IT'S the end of an era today as 223 years of Welsh sporting history and unforgettable memories - many good, some bad - come to an end.
Swansea City play their last official League game at the Vetch Field, with manager Kenny Jackett demanding the carnival occasion also produces three critical promotion points for his team against Stockport.

Just 45 minutes after that game has finished, the nostalgia continues barely half a mile down the road when Lyn Jones' Ospreys meet Ulster in the final top level rugby match to be played at St Helen's.

The Swans and the Ospreys move into their lavish new 20,000-seater Morfa home next season.

And they are each determined to make it a winning swansong today and go out with a bang.

The Swans have had their highs and lows at the Vetch over 93 years, including promotion, relegation and that never to be forgotten march to the top of the old First Division under John Toshack.

The Wales boss will be amongst the sell-out crowd this afternoon and Jackett is demanding nothing less than V for "Vetch victory" for the fans.

"There will be a lot of supporters very sad to say goodbye to the ground," said Jackett.

"But while it's already going to be an emotional day, we have to make it extra special by clinching the three points.

"We have to ensure the bits and pieces surrounding the last league fixture here doesn't cloud our focus.

"Make no mistake, this is a must-win game for us if we are to give ourselves a chance of automatic promotion."

Failure today and the Swans could yet be back at the Vetch for a play-off game, while they also meet Wrexham there in the FAW Premier Cup final.

But today is being billed as the official League finale and Jackett continued, "We've got to use our great crowd to lift us today. It's a big game for big game players."

The rugby history at St Helen's stretches back even further to 1875 and includes memorable Swansea wins over New Zealand and Australia, plus Wales games.

Today it is the Celtic Cup quarter-finals and the Ospreys are determined to see out top-flight rugby at the famous old ground in style.

Grand Slam winner Jonathan Thomas said, "People say St Helen's is old and a relic of the past, but it's steeped in history and tradition. It will be a sad day to say goodbye to two such famous venues on one day.

"However, we have to look to the future. And we want to go to the Morfa next season as Celtic Cup holders, as well as Celtic League champions. We want to bow out in the right manner by beating Ulster."

KENNY JACKETT says the people of Swansea have left him in no doubt what today's historic final league game at the Vetch means.
The Swans boss has barely been able to take a step in the city this week without supporters sharing their emotions surrounding today's league goodbye to the club's home of 93 years.

But, after reaching the pinnacle of his footballing career at the same venue, Jackett says he doesn't need to be told how special today's game with Shrewsbury will be.

And the man entrusted with taking the Swans to their new surroundings at Morfa has vowed to make sure his players play their part in what is destined to be a special day in the club's history.

"A lot of people have come up to me and told me what this means to them," said Jackett. "I think there will be a lot of fans very sad to say goodbye to the ground, and it is going to be a special day

"Fans have a lot of good memories of the place and so have I. There's been some terrific games here since I came to the club, but for me my favourite memory of the ground was when I made my international debut.

"I played there for Wales against Norway and for that it will always hold a special place in my heart.

"Getting your full cap is a big thing but doing it in front of my parents - both Swansea born and bred - was really special for me.

"The atmosphere has always been fantastic and it's going to be the case again against Shrewsbury for what is yet another big game.

"But we have to make sure all the bits and pieces surrounding the last league fixture don't cloud our focus - and I'm sure it won't. This is a must-win game for us if we are to give ourselves a chance going into the final game of the season."

Should Jackett fail to steer his side to that win, the pre-match entertainment and emotion may be an anti-climax. Two points adrift of the top three places which signal automatic promotion, Swansea know they need two maximum returns from their last two fixtures or face the consequences of the play-offs.

Even without the responsibility of giving such a historic occasion a result to match, the stakes are high for Jackett. Mentally, Jackett says the Swans are prepared for what lies ahead.

And, after seeing his Swansea side come out on top whenever the phrase "must-win" has been wheeled out this term, the former Watford man is confident they can do the same one last time.

"We don't want the play-offs," he said. "We've been fighting at the right end of the table all season and we want to go for the automatic places.

"And we know to do that we need to beat Shrewsbury. It's going to be a full house and a special occasion, but we have to put all that to one side because we have business to get on with.

"I've already spoken to the side about using the crowd to their advantage, about lifting them with their performance. They've shown at home this year they can all be big-game players and I know their minds are on the job.

"Making sure the players are up for a game like this is not going to be a problem - it's more of a concern the other way, that people can get nervous and freeze up a little bit.

"Yes you need to be up for it to play your best football, but you must also be relaxed. And, most importantly, we need to be confident in ourselves."

On league form alone, Swansea have every right to be confident. Losing just three times at home all year and up against a side just two places - albeit a healthy 10 points - above the Football League drop zone, this afternoon's opponents shouldn't provide much of a problem.

But the defeat at Bristol Rovers last week, coupled with the loss of red-carded Andy Robinson, proves at this stage of the season it can be very much a case of anything goes.

And Jackett has issued strict instructions to his men to bounce back from what he described as the lowest point of his season.

"It was disappointing to lose at Shrewsbury," said Jackett on the 2-0 reversal at Gay Meadow which saw Garry Monk and Robinson both sent off. "But last week was the real low point of the season.

"Probably simply because at the stage of the season it happened with so few games left to play. And we have to come back and make sure we play with patience and tempo, passing the ball early and quickly.

"Shrewsbury will be determined, but we must win."

JOHN WILLIAMS (Swans striker 1991-92; 1995; 2001-03)

I REMEMBER being terrified just before making my first league start at the Vetch, in a Division Three match against Reading about 14 years ago.

I was only 22 or 23, making my first steps in league football, and I was so nervous about playing in front of the home crowd that I threw up on myself on the way to the ground.

And when I got to the Vetch and saw all the fans, it was pretty scary. It was a new experience for me.

I settled my nerves when I ran from the halfway line and scored and the whole North Bank surged forward to try to celebrate with me. That was a lovely feeling.

I joined Coventry City the following season but came back to Swansea for two further spells and always had a good relationship with the fans.

I'm never likely to forget the last game I was involved in at the Vetch - the win over Hull City that saved Swansea from being relegated to the Conference two years ago. What an unbelievable atmosphere that day.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it off the subs' bench. That was a shame.
I would've loved to have been on the pitch one last time in a big game like that.

Swansea legend Alan Curtis admits the club's departure from the Vetch Field will leave him with mixed emotions.
"It will be a harrowing time for the fans and for me personally, but the new stadium excites everyone," said Curtis.

"It won't hit me after the Shrewsbury game, but when I walk out with the gates locked for the final time a few weeks later. I'm not relishing that."

Saturday's Shrewsbury tie is the last league fixture at the ground, but the Swans may yet be in the play-offs.

The FAW Premier Cup final between Swansea and Wrexham will also be played there at a date yet to be confirmed.

The 93-year-old Vetch will then be demolished, with Swansea moving to their new stadium at Morfa next season.

Curtis' connection to the old ground runs deep, having started his playing career there as a 17-year-old.


The Vetch may look like a tired, jaded old ground, but the place comes alive on match days and flowers with a life of its own

Alan Curtis
The former Wales centre forward returned to the club at the end of his playing career, and has since been community officer, youth team coach, assistant manager, caretaker manager and head of youth at the Vetch, his current role.

"I've spent most of my adult working life associated with the ground," he told BBC Sport Wales.

"My father brought me down here for the first time for a trial match in 1971, a Sunday morning - and, unusually for Swansea, a sunny day!

"Since then it's been like I've been tied to the club by an elastic band, they've tried to get rid of me but I keep coming back!

"The Vetch may look like a tired, jaded old ground, but the place comes alive on match days and flowers with a life of its own.

"It's going to be a strange feeling on Saturday, but the foremost thing on my mind will be getting three points for the promotion race.

"If we can get up this season the club could move on quickly in the next few years, perhaps compete at Championship level where we feel Swansea belong.

"The new stadium is absolutely magnificent, I can only compare it to a mini Millennium Stadium.

"You have a fantastic view from every vantage point, the facilities are great and the club can generate hospitality money at regular intervals.

"Whatever the sadness at leaving the Vetch and all its memories, this is the dawning of a new era."

WILLY Gueret is expecting an electric atmosphere when he stands in front of the North Bank for one final time tomorrow.


The French goalkeeper has paid tribute to the Swansea City fans ahead of their all-important clash with Shrewsbury Town.

Gueret, like everyone else connected with the Vetch, will hope tomorrow's game will be the last league encounter at the ground, because that will mean they have secured automatic promotion.

"I was told about the fans before I came here and they have been very good," said the 32-year-old shot-stopper.

"They are going to make the atmosphere electric and if we can score early on then it is going to get even better."

But the former Millwall goalkeeper is not expecting Shrewsbury to be easy.

"I think that it is going to be tough as they will probably come here for the draw," he said.

"I know Shrewsbury could do us a favour next week as they play Scunthorpe, but that match doesn't concern me."

With Swansea sitting in fourth place, two points behind Scunthorpe, some people could be forgiven for thinking that the play-offs are beckoning for the side from the Vetch, but Swansea's custodian does not go along with that theory.

"We are going for automatic promotion it is as simple as that.Yeovil and Southend are playing each other tomorrow and we want either one of them to win," he said.

Season-ticket holders are being asked to use the turnstiles for the area stated on their tickets tomorrow, while adults, senior citizens and children can all use the same turnstiles as their is no cash on the gates.

Fans are also requested to wear black and white for the match and free black and white balloons will be given out to let go when the two teams come out.

Supporters are also being urged not to cause any damage to stadium or the pitch as this is not the last game to be played at the Vetch. The club still have to host the FAW Premier Cup and there is still the possibility of play-offs. Season ticket holders are also being asked not to throw their books away as they may need them for preferential ticket allocation if the club have to go through the play-offs.

There are still 2,600 tickets left for the trip to Bury next weekend and they are now on general sale. But the ticket office will not be open after Saturday's match. It will reopen again on Tuesday at 9am.

Gary Peters will challenge his Shrewsbury Town team to make sure tomorrow's clash is not the last at the Vetch Field by consigning Swansea City to the League Two play-offs.

A capacity crowd of around 12,000 is expected at the match tomorrow, which marks the end of an era for the south Wales club.

They move to their new 20,000 all-seater White Rock stadium over the summer, ending 93 years of football at the Vetch.

But a Town victory could spoil the party in more ways than one as Swansea are desperate for all three points to maintain their push for automatic promotion.

"It could be the last game there but then if they end up in the play-offs then there will be another one," said Peters. "It would be nice if it was not the last game because that would mean that we've got some points off them."

Peters will miss the game again to go on another scouting mission as he continues to plan for next season.

A renowned talker at the heart of defence, Monk will do his best to outshout more than 11,000 fans tomorrow as Swansea City seek the win which looks essential if they are to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive.

Victory would taste especially sweet for Monk, who landed a six-match ban after his dismissal in Swansea's dismal defeat at Shrewsbury back in November.

It might go close to matching the time he had on May 19, 2001, the day Southampton said goodbye to The Dell.

Despite spending six years as a Saint, the 26-year-old centre-back managed only nine Premiership starts for the South Coast club.

That one should come on such a significant occasion meant a lot.

That Southampton should beat an Arsenal side featuring Adams, Keown, Cole, Pires, Vieira, Parlour, Ljungberg, Bergkamp and Henry put a truck-load of icing on the cake.

And all this after Monk had faced and beaten Manchester United the previous weekend.

"They were the best two weeks ever," he recalls.

"Beating United was obviously great and then we came to Arsenal and the end of The Dell.

"It wasn't actually the very last game - that was a friendly against Brighton after the season ended which they arranged because Brighton had been the opposition in the first ever game at The Dell."

Not unlike the situation at Swansea, then, where the FAW Premier Cup final lies ahead next month.

But tomorrow's final league encounter is the one that really counts, the game that has been hyped since the fixtures came out last summer.

"The Brighton game was more of a jolly-up," Monk continues.

"Arsenal was the one that mattered more and looking back it was an unbelievable day."

Interestingly, only 15,000 - a little over 3,000 more than Swansea expect this weekend - were there to say farewell to The Dell, a ground which, like the Vetch, was known for its unwelcoming nature.

"Even going into the ground that day, I remember the atmosphere being totally different because it was the last game," Monk adds.

"There was a bit of a weird feeling really, although that's not saying it wasn't good.

"I had never seen anything like it - I remember bigwriting on the pitch saying End of The Dell - and it was fantastic to be involved."

Once the match got underway, Arsenal took the lead through Ashley Cole and, though Hassan Kachloul levelled just after half-time, home celebrations looked like being watered down when Freddie Ljungberg restored the Gunners' advantage.

Kachloul equalised again, though, and with a minute remaining on the old ground's clock, substitute Matt Le Tissier supplied The Dell's last league goal.

The party had started.

"The script was written for Matt Le Tiss," Monk says through a smile. "Something similar at the Vetch would do very nicely - although sealing victory a little earlier would be ideal for everybody's nerves."

After a season of home successes - Jackett's team last lost a league game on their own patch on New Year's Day- a full-house of Swansea followers will demand nothing less.

Indeed, with legends in town and champagne corks popping in the marquee which has sprouted near the East Stand, anything less than three points is close to unthinkable.

"Because of the new stadium, the expectations surrounding us have been great all year," Monk points out.

"They'll be even greater for this game, and the last thing we want to do is disappoint everybody at the end of what should be a fantastic day."

Will Monk's mind drift back to Gay Meadow, and two dubious bookable offences followed by a loss of temper which made Manchester referee Eddie Evans feel 'threatened' and ruined the former Barnsley centre-back's Christmas?

"That's gone now," he insists.

"What's important now is that we don't get distracted by everything else that's going on this weekend and focus on what's important.

"It's all about the 90 minutes for us and it's all about winning the game."

SWANSEA City's players will wear a golden crest as they bid to keep their hopes of a League Two podium finish alive in Vetch Field's farewell fixture tomorrow.


The golden Swan will replace the normal badge on each player's shirt to mark the end of League football at the ground after 93 years.

As gatecrashers at the party, Shrewsbury know an away win would not only wreck the day but also Swansea's chances of clinching a top-three place when their season ends at Bury in eight days' time.

"Of course we are all aware that this is the last League game at the Vetch," said boss Kenny Jackett, "but we must make sure that all the bits and pieces surrounding it do not cloud our focus.

"We must win this game."

As they prepared for this most eagerly-anticipated encounter, Jackett's squad watched a team of touring Kiwi kids perform the Haka at their training ground earlier in the week.

Pre-match motivation routines will not be required tomorrow.

"Making sure the players are up for a game like this is not going to be a problem," Jackett added. "It's more of a concern the other way - that people can get nervous and freeze up a little bit.

"Yes you need to be up for it to play your best football, but you must also be relaxed."

Andy Robinson's dismissal at Bristol Rovers means he misses the big occasion through suspension, paving the way for Kevin McLeod to return in what should be the sole change to the side which started at the Memorial Stadium.

The sending-off, coupled with the abject nature of last Saturday's defeat, brought back memories of Swansea's trip to Shrewsbury in November, when Robinson and Garry Monk saw red during another 2-0 reverse.

"Shrewsbury was very poor, but when there's still a long way to go in the season you accept there will be setbacks and you don't get quite as upset," Jackett added.

"The lowest point of the year for me was last weekend.

"Losing at Rovers was disappointing because we're so close to the end."

Shrewsbury, bottom when they humbled Swansea in the autumn, arrive with just one win in nine matches but sure of their Football League status for another year after drawing with Notts County last weekend.

Manager Gary Peters is expected to leave No. 2 Mick Wadsworth in charge while he scouts elsewhere, while top-scorer Luke Rodgers's absence - because of his failure to sign a new contract - gives further indication of the importance of the game in Shropshire.

Still, around 600 Shrews fans will swell a crowd of more than 11,000, perhaps the biggest for a regular-season league fixture at the Vetch since 1989.

"It's going to be a fantastic atmosphere because of the tradition and the history of the place and because of our situation at the top of the league," Jackett said. "Some are sad to be leaving, but many more are excited about what the new stadium will do for the future of Swansea City

LEE TRUNDLE has called for one last effort from Swansea fans to make sure the Vetch Field is given the send-off it deserves - three points.

The whole of Swansea - and then some - is gearing up for a party atmosphere tomorrow when Kenny Jackett's side go into league battle at their home of 93 years for the last time against Shrewsbury.

But, with the players determined to keep their focus on the three points at stake and the automatic promotion place riding on them, top scorer Trundle has urged the Vetch faithful to remember they still have a part to play away from the festivities.

"It's a special day for the fans and a massive game for us," the 28-year-old hitman said. "We know we need to get a win to set us up for the last game of the season.

"And we've said all season that the fans play a huge part in us doing well at the Vetch and we need that to be the case again. We want the fans to get behind us because they play a massive part with the noise that they make.

"The atmosphere is going to be something else and there are quite a few players out there who just don't like going into games with big crowds and intimidating atmospheres like the one at the Vetch and that can play a big part for us.

"It's going to be intimidating for Shrewsbury, whatever happens, because that's part of the ground, that's part of why the Vetch is so unique. You can't take that away from the fans because that's the way they are naturally.

"Of course there's going to be a party atmosphere off the pitch, but I think when they see the players all out there giving it 100 per cent, then it will filter through to the fans and get everyone pulling in the same direction."

Trundle instantly became the latest in a long line of darlings of the North Bank on his arrival from Wrexham in the summer of 2003.

Scoring on his debut against Bury, Trundle's 31 goals in front of his own fans has put his name next to Noel Dwyer, Ivor Allchurch, Alan Curtis, Roger Freestone and many others on the list of the city's terrace idols.

But where the Swans players might be boosted by the noise emanating from inside the stadium by the sea, it can have the opposite effect on visitors.

Former Swans boss Jan Molby has long waxed lyrical about the number of points won by the infamous North Bank and more recently complained he was the victim of it when his Kidderminster side lost 3-0 in South Wales earlier this season.

So too has Ian Atkins been wary of the potentially imposing influence the large pitch-length terrace can have on tight contests, doing his best to warn referees before taking his Oxford and Bristol Rovers sides to the Vetch.

But, although the notion the North Bank and the Vetch's infamous intimidating atmosphere can affect key decisions isn't one Trundle necessarily agrees with, he admits the home support does play a big part in any Swans success.

"The fans are brilliant here and it can be intimidating for away teams simply because of the size of the crowd," said Trundle, usually the chief benefactor of any refereeing decisions at the Vetch thanks to his set-piece specialities. "When you run out in front of the crowd and the noise hits you it just lifts you straight away. Whenever you're feeling a bit low on energy you hear your fans screaming and shouting and it makes you find that little bit extra inside.

"But when other managers come and say things like the referee was swayed by the crowd or the fans have won us decisions it just seems to me like sour grapes and they're just looking for excuses."

If Swansea are to have any hope of reaching one of the three automatic spots on offer, there can be no room for such excuses tomorrow. With rivals Yeovil and Southend going head-to-head, and Scunthorpe facing recent Swans conquerors Bristol Rovers, a win is a must for Jackett.

But Trundle insists the Swans are enjoying being the ones doing the chasing and aren't fearful of missing out on a top-three place.

"It's not a worry for us because we're just sat behind chasing with nothing to lose," he said. "We're already guaranteed a play-off spot, so we don't have to worry about that. We know we've still got a chance if we win our last two games and it's the others who will be panicking not us if that happens.

"We'll be rushing back in the changing room looking for the other results but we won't be worrying about them. There's nothing we can do about other teams, apart from keep the pressure on them.

"We all know there's going to be a lot of things going on around the stadium and on the pitch but that's not for our benefit and we can't get involved. We have to be focused 100 per cent on the game because that's what we're here to do."

WELSH soccer chiefs will go where the WRU have chosen not to tread by taking Ryan Giggs and the rest of John Toshack's team to the new Morfa Stadium in August.
The FA of Wales say they have resolved their differences with Morfa bosses, who had previously priced themselves out of staging a football international at the ground.

A new deal has been done for Wales to play Slovenia at the 20,000-seater Swansea stadium on August 17. And the match seems certain to be a sell-out.

Not only will it be the first big game to be played at the Morfa, it will also be Wales' warm-up for the huge World Cup showdown with England just 26 days afterwards.

FAW bosses said the WRU's decision to snub the Morfa by declining to take their November rugby international against Fiji there was a matter for them.

But FAW secretary David Collins stated, "As far as we are concerned, we are delighted to say that John Toshack's team will be playing in Swansea.

"The Millennium Stadium, let me stress, remains very much our No 1 home, and rightly so.

"But the Slovenia friendly, coupled with the building of the Morfa Stadium, gives us a fantastic opportunity to take a Wales international to Swansea for the first time in many years.

"We have no doubts the public will come out to support Ryan and the rest of the team in large numbers. The Morfa is a truly magnificent venue, with excellent facilities, and we are more than happy to be going there."

Toshack had originally suggested bringing the Slovenia match to Swansea, but the FAW were then forced to tell Morfa bosses they had priced themselves out of the market.

Stadco, the company set up to run the new stadium in West Wales, wanted to keep 85 per cent of the gate receipts and basically treat the Wales international as if it was their own game, like a Swansea City match.

The FAW told them to get lost and voted to take the match to Cardiff City's Ninian Park ground instead.

But Stadco representatives contacted Wales to say they had done a U-turn and were prepared to meet every single one of the FAW's original financial demands.

Asked if Stadco were being greedy in the first place, Collins replied, "Let's just say there were differences between us. If we had succumbed to their demands, we would not have been able to take Wales v Slovenia there.

"The FAW did decide to say no and chose to host the match elsewhere. But, following Stadco's climbdown, so to speak, or perhaps it's better to say their new offer to meet our own requests for the game, we are happy to change our own decision again.

"It still needs to be rubber-stamped by the FAW's full ruling council for official confirmation, but our management committee have made the recommendation for the Morfa. We are pleased to have overcome any problems and take the Slovenia fixture there."

Collins says ticket prices for the game have still to be determined, but anticipates the cheap rates already in place for Wales games at the Millennium Stadium applying again.

The Wales v Slovenia encounter will not be the first soccer match at the new ground. Swansea City plan a glamorous pre-season friendly and Kenny Jackett's men will also have a league fixture before Giggs and co appear.

But Collins said, "The Wales game is bound to attract huge interest.

"Particularly as it's only a matter of days before John's team play England. Everyone will be keen to see how Wales are faring in the build up to the big one."

HUW Jenkins admits it would be a "massive disappointment" if Swansea City fail to sign off at Vetch Field with promotion to League One.

And the Swansea chairman has called on Kenny Jackett's players to give themselves a chance of clinching a top-three place with victories in their two remaining regular season games.

Swansea are painfully aware that even a six-point haul from Saturday's home clash with Shrewsbury and the trip to Bury on May 7 might not be enough to send them up without the trouble of the play-offs.

And Jenkins admitted: "We have made it difficult for ourselves with some of our results in recent weeks. We have improved from last year and whatever happens we are going to finish higher than we did 12 months ago ? making the play-offs is certainly an achievement.

"But expectancy levels are now far greater at this club and it will be a massive disappointment if we don't go up. We want to move up the Football League ladder and, rightly or wrongly, we feel we are better than the clubs who are above us in the table. We need success to make the most of the opportunities that lie ahead for us at the new stadium."

Swansea's owners have indicated throughout the Vetch's final campaign that a top-seven place would be considered acceptable, but having seen Jackett's team spend five months in the automatic promotion spots before losing form since February, there is now a sense that finishing fourth will equate to a missed opportunity.

Defeat at Bristol Rovers last weekend was the latest example of Swansea's failure to deliver when a chance presented itself, leaving Jenkins calling for consistency to produce future success.

"As the club progresses off the field, naturally we expect more and more from the players on the pitch," he added. "The expectation and demand for commitment, passion and good performance is going to get greater and greater."

In a veiled criticism of the current squad, he continued: "Everything connected with the playing side of the club has to improve and the players will realise that they have to produce the required level of performance consistently."

THREE goals in seven second-half minutes gave Swansea City reserves a comfortable victory over Plymouth Argyle reserves at Port Talbot.


After a scrappy first half where Swansea led through a Chad Bond goal, the hosts struck a purple patch early on in the second period.

An injury to skipper Stuart Jones marred the first half, with the defender having to be carried from the field on stretcher after he made a rash challenge on Argyle striker Chris Zebroski which left him rolling around in agony with less than 15 minutes remaining of the opening period.

Jones did reappear in the stand late in the second half but his right knee will now be assessed to see what damage has been done.

Reports suggest that he may have injured the cartilage, although he may injured his medial ligaments. Swansea took the lead on 19 minutes when the persistence of Ijah Anderson got him through on the left flank to whip over a cross that Rhys Williams played back across the Plymouth goal for Bond to head home.

The visitors did have their chances in the first half with Chay Bond and Zebroski forcing saves from Kyle Letheren.

However, it was Swansea who should have scored again before the break after some fine skill from Martin Thompson put in Nat Pepperell, but his shot was straight at Romain Laureui.

Letheren had to save Swansea two minutes into the second half when Jamie Brotherton broke and shot but the reserve keeper managed to palm the ball away.

But after that early scare it was all Swansea. A mix-up in the Plymouth defence saw Liam Drew head the ball past his own on 55 minutes, before Pepperell made 3-0 two minutes later when he was left unmarked to volley home Thompson?s cross.

Thompson completed the rout on 62 minutes when his cross-shot beat the hapless Laureui at his near post.

With victory assured, the game fell back to being the scrappy affair like the opening 45 minutes.

Swansea: Letheren, Edwards, Anderson, Thompson,Tate, Jones (sub T. Evans 31), Williams, MacDonald, Pepperell, Bond, Guy.

Score summary: Bond 19, Drew (og) 55, Pepperell 57, Thompson 62.

Legg made 576 league appearances for seven clubs
Peterborough defender Andy Legg has been forced to retire after a tumour on his neck was found to be cancerous.
A recent operation to remove the growth confirmed the 38-year-old former Wales international's worst fears.

"Andy has been told there's a good chance the cancer may have spread, so he has been advised to give up playing. "It's a terrible end to a glorious career, and he has the sympathy of everyone at the club," Posh boss Barry Fry told the Evening Telegraph.

Legg's 17-year professional career saw him make 576 league appearances for seven different clubs, scoring 61 goals in that time.

Born in Neath, he joined Swansea from Briton Ferry Athletic in 1988, and went on to serve Notts County, Birmingham, Ipswich, Reading, Cardiff and Peterborough.

Once renowned as possessing the longest throw-in in British football, he also won six full caps for Wales.

ROBERTO Martinez has urged Swansea City not to do a Real Madrid when they say farewell to League football at Vetch Field this weekend.

Legends of Swansea's past will be paraded on Saturday as a full-house witnesses the 93-year-old ground's last league game against Shrewsbury.
But Martinez is warning the club's present players not to take their eye of the ball.

"I look back to Real Madrid's centenary (March 6, 2002) when they played Deportivo La Coruna in the Copa del Rey final at the Bernabeu," the Spanish midfielder said.

"It was meant to be a night of celebration for Real, but they ended up losing the game.

"That is always the danger on an occasion like this. People get so excited about the celebrations that they forget about how difficult the game is.

"It is very hard to separate the celebrations from what actually happens on the pitch and that is something we cannot allow to happen.

"People tend to take the opposition and the win for granted, but we know how hard a game Shrewsbury will be.

"We have to be right, because to lose on Saturday would be a massive disappointment given the situation at the top."

While lowly Shrewsbury have little to play for other than pride, Swansea know victory is essential if they are to keep alive their hopes of automatic promotion.

Miserable defeat for Kenny Jackett's side at Bristol Rovers last weekend means their destiny is out of their hands with two regular-season games remaining.

But club skipper Martinez, who forecast months ago that the race for League One would go all the way to the final day, remains optimistic that two victories will see Swansea through.

"I stress, we shouldn't take it for granted that we will beat Shrewsbury and then win again at Bury," he said.

"But if we can do that, we'll reach the 80-point target we set ourselves at the start of the season and we'll have achieved our aim. Given that Yeovil and Southend have to play each other, we hope that will give us a chance."

With an emotional weekend ahead, he added: "As a Swansea City player you never seem to have mild times.

"It's always a rollercoaster ride one way or another. Saturday will be a fantastic day for the fans with the great names coming back, but looking to the future of the club it's vital that we finish off with a win."

FOR Sam Ricketts, winning promotion with Swansea would be the dream end to a dream season.

Rescued from non-league obscurity at Telford, transformed into one of Swansea's key players, picked to play in two World Cup qualifiers and named in the League Two team of the year - it's already been a season to cherish for Ricketts.

But the 23-year-old defender admits much of the above will have the gloss taken off it if the campaign does not end with the prize he's spent the last nine months fighting for.

"It's been a tremendous season for me, absolutely brilliant, but I'll probably look back on it with some disappointment if we don't get promoted," said Ricketts as he prepares for Saturday's crunch Vetch Field swansong against Shrewsbury.

"Getting called up for Wales was amazing and then being named in the Professional Footballers Association team of the year was a great honour.

"But the biggest award for me, the biggest award for anyone at Swansea, is to get promoted. It's what we've been striving for all season and we're desperate to achieve it."

Ricketts has been a consistent cog in Kenny Jackett's Swans engine, performing with energy and strength in either full-back position.

So much so that the former Oxford defender earned a surprise first Wales cap in the 2-0 friendly win over Hungary in February.

Ricketts retained his place for last month's World Cup double-header against Austria, performing particularly well in the 1-0 defeat in Vienna.

The downside of his international exploits, though, is an abdominal muscle complaint that he picked up on the continent and has got progressively worse ever since.

But Ricketts insists that, unless the injury impairs him to such an extent that he'll have no choice but to stand aside and let someone else take his place, he'll continue playing through the pain barrier.

"I have to admit I've not been 100 per cent fit since the last Wales game, and the injury has got worse and worse, but I've got to try and get on with it," said Ricketts. "Some days its not too bad and other days it kills me. It's something I've got to constantly assess.

"If we were in mid-table I wouldn't be playing. But we need to be winning all our games so I've been prepared to push through the pain barrier.

"Though, the injury is starting to steady out. It's got better over the last few days and hopefully it'll continue to ease."

Leon Britton admits he has the Hull City feeling heading into Saturday's crunch clash with Shrewsbury. Nearly two years to the day since James Thomas's hat-trick fired Swansea to Football League survival, Kenny Jackett's side bid to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive as the Vetch Field gates swing shut on League football this weekend.

And Britton, one of just three survivors from Hull likely to be involved again this time, believes Shrewsbury's visit warrants almost equal billing.

''It's the biggest game since Hull,'' the midfield creator said. ''And, for different reasons, it's up there with that game in terms of importance.

''In a way there's not as much riding on it because we're not worrying about dropping down to the Conference this time.

''But it's a must-win game as far as our automatic promotion hopes go and on top of that it's the last-ever league game at the Vetch.

''That doubles the importance up and makes it extra special for us all.''

The build-up to Hull was nerve-filled as Swansea's supporters contemplated a fixture list featuring Margate and Morecambe.

Some 9,500 fans packed into the Vetch to see Brian Flynn's side wriggle off the hook, while a crowd of more than 11,000 is expected this weekend as the class of 2005 aim to join the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and probably Nottingham Forest in League One.

''I remember the week leading up to Hull,'' Britton added. ''That was seriously tense.

''We're probably a bit more relaxed now, but I'm sure the tension will build up as we get closer to Saturday.

''It's a massive game for us, although it's better to be leaving the Vetch with something to aim for than being in mid-table with nothing to play for.''

Swansea take on a Shrewsbury side, who were struggling at the foot of the table when they upset Jackett's men in November, that have little to play for now having confirmed their league status for another year last weekend.

''We know what we've got to do and we've got to focus on getting things right come 3pm on Saturday,'' added Britton, a second-half substitute in last weekend's miserable defeat at Bristol Rovers.

''Hopefully I can play some part, whether it is from the start or from the bench, and more importantly we can win the game.

''We're confident we will and then we'll aim for another victory at Bury next week. If we can do that then we should have a pretty good chance of finishing in the top three.''

Around 250 remaining tickets for Shrewsbury quickly sold out at the William Street office yesterday.

The match is all-ticket for travelling fans, too, with around 600 sold by the Shropshire club so far.

Bookies reckon Swansea City are still odds-on to win automatic promotion, even though they are relying on others after defeat at Bristol Rovers last weekend. Jack Brown price Kenny Jackett's side at 4-7 to finish in the top three compared to 5-4 to end up in the play-offs. ''We're very confident Swansea will do it,'' explained spokesman Karl Williams. ''They need Southend's game with Yeovil to go one way or the other and the only danger is that they'll 'accidentally' draw.

''But two of the three possible outcomes suit Swansea and we see them beating Shrewsbury on Saturday and then winning at Bury.

''Scunthorpe have two gimme games left which doesn't help, but the odds still say Swansea will make it."

Kenny Jackett has admitted Swansea City have wasted golden chances to wrap up promotion in the second half of the season. But the Swansea boss insists that going up via the automatic route is still a possibility - and he has told his players to take the top-three battle to the wire by beating Shrewsbury Town this weekend.

After thumping Kidderminster 5-1 in their 23rd game of the league campaign - the halfway point - Swansea were on course to avoid the play-offs with 42 points on the board but, with two games to go, they have added only 32 points so far and are in danger of seeing their season extended.

Most of the problems have come on the road - just four away points have been taken from 24 since the win at Boston in January - with Jackett labelling last Saturday's 2-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers another potential success squandered.

"Whatever we've done so far, we can't have gone that far wrong seeing as we're three points off the top," he said.

"But you can't help thinking that we've missed opportunities over the last few months.

"Since February really we have had the chances to cement our place in the top three and we haven't taken them."

The consolation is that Swansea's promotion rivals have failed to pull away too.

Jackett continued: "The good thing is that the opportunity is still there for us.

"Southend and Yeovil play each other this weekend and you wonder if things can turn for us again.

"If we can beat Shrewsbury then it will all go down to a trip to Bury on the last day."

Crucially, Swansea cannot be certain of a place in League One even if they clinch six points from now on in.

Should Southend and Yeovil draw at Roots Hall on Saturday, they will go into their final games - against Grimsby (away) and Lincoln (home) respectively - knowing victories will see them finish above Jackett's side.

Scunthorpe, currently in third on 76 points, will also be higher if they can win their remaining fixtures against Bristol Rovers (home) and Shrewsbury (away).

"We need someone to win the Southend-Yeovil game and then we would be level on points," Jackett added.

"Then we could go to Bury looking to win and hoping results go our way elsewhere.

"It's still very tight up there so it's still possible."

Nevertheless Jackett has begun planning for the play-offs just in case.

"We've played everybody twice already of course, but we've been watching the other sides recently for changes in personnel in particular," he revealed.

A Smaller version of the Ivor Allchurch statue which will grace Swansea City's new stadium is among the collectibles up for auction at Vetch Field on Sunday. Also on offer - with a £500 bid already tabled - is the No. 9 shirt worn by Leighton James in the 3-1 win at Preston which clinched promotion to the First Division in 1981.

One of only two Swans shirts Alan Curtis still has from his playing days will go under the hammer, as will a Swans shirt signed by John Charles and John Cornforth's captain's armband from Swansea's 1994 Autoglass Trophy win at Wembley.

The 16 home players' shirts from Saturday's game with Shrewsbury Town, the last ever league match at the Vetch, will also be sold off along with a set of exclusive Evening Post photographs charting the 93-year history of the Vetch.

All items will come as part of the Vetch commemorative box sets - worth £150 - and all have a reserve price of £200.

The Allchurch statue is the working model for the real thing outside the Swans' new Morfa home, with all proceeds from that particular lot going towards the Ivor Allchurch Statue Memorial Fund.

The auction, which will be hosted by Kevin Johns, kicks off at 7.30pm on Sunday night in the marquee at the rear of the East Stand.

Ryan Williams today attempted to clear his name after being accused of intentionally getting an opponent sent off. Swansea City midfielder Andy Robinson received his marching orders after clashing with Williams shortly before half-time during Bristol Rovers' League Two victory at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday.

Although Robinson aimed a head butt at the Rovers winger and gave Lancashire official Mark Cowburn little option but to issue a straight red card, Swansea supporters have suggested on the club's website that Williams was responsible for their man's early exit.

However, Williams vigorously denies claims that he play-acted in order to influence the referee's decision and insists he was an entirely innocent party.

"I did nothing wrong and was certainly not to blame for the sending-off," declared Williams.

"Of course I put my hands up to my face after the incident because I was in pain and it was the natural thing to do. But it wasn't as though I was rolling around on the floor and trying to influence the referee.

"I stayed on my feet, turned away from him and allowed the referee to sort it out. There's no way I attempted to cheat him off the pitch and to claim otherwise is simply not fair.

"As far as I'm concerned, if Robinson decided to put his head in my face right in front of the assistant referee, he was playing a risky game."

Robinson has been handed a three-match ban for violent conduct and will miss the promotion-chasing Swans' remaining fixtures at home to Shrewsbury on Saturday and at Bury on May 7.

But Williams is determined not to allow the incident to overshadow a fine team performance by Rovers and a lively display on his part.

He said: "I thought Swansea struggled to contain us at times and we proved a point to ourselves by playing that well. We were very positive, took the game to them and won fairly comfortably in the end."

On a personal note, Williams added: "I've been pleased with my performances over the past few weeks and I'm benefiting from playing regularly.

"It was difficult when I was out of the team earlier in the season and my main objective has been to force my way back in and play every week. Now that is happening, the performances are coming and I'm loving every minute of it."

l Former Rovers star Nick Culkin has conceded defeat in his battle with a long-standing knee injury and has announced his retirement from the game.

The 26-year-old QPR keeper said: "It's been a real battle and sadly the injury has beaten me. I've worked very hard to get fit again but it just wasn't to be."

Chief executive Mark Devlin paid tribute to the former Bristol Rovers and Hull goalkeeper, saying: "Nick's a popular lad at the club and this is very sad news.

"It's never nice to hear of a player being forced to cut short his career and on behalf of everyone at the club, I would like to thank him for his efforts and wish him well in whatever he now chooses to do."

ROBERTO MARTINEZ fears the festivities lined up to mark the last league game at the Vetch could be a major distraction for the Swansea City players.
The Swans skipper knows there will be a carnival atmosphere for the visit of Shrewsbury Town on Saturday when Swansea's 93-year-old home plays host to one final league game before its gates are shut for good this summer.

As well as various dinners and functions taking place in the run-up to the game, there will be a mixture of pre-match entertainment that includes a sing-song from comedian Max Boyce.

But a worried Martinez insists the players will have to try to block out the celebrations going on around them to make sure they're properly focused on a match crucial to Swansea's hopes of clinching automatic promotion.

"I am worried that all the festivities will be distracting for the players before such an important game," said the Spanish midfielder.

"Everyone understands it's the last league game at the Vetch and that many groups of people have been working hard to make sure it gets a proper send-off.

"It's difficult because, on an occasion like this, you don't want to say that the history of the ground shouldn't be celebrated.

"But this is a match we want to win more than ever and the players have got to be 100 per cent focused on making sure we do win it."

Martinez highlights examples from his native Spain when he believes events going on away from the pitch adversely affected what happened on it.

"I remember in particular Real Madrid getting to the Spanish Copa del Rey Cup final a few years ago," he said.

"It was Real's centenary year and there were a lot of things going on around the time of the match to mark the occasion.

"And what happened? They were beaten 2-1 by Deportivo La Coruna at the Bernabeu.

"The same thing happened to Barcelona when they were beaten by Valencia.

"You could pick out examples of any festivity from any league in the world having a negative effect on what happens on the pitch.

"We can't allow that to happen on Saturday. We have to be ready to make sure we don't fail."

Kenny Jackett's players will be kept away from the Vetch-related activities taking place in the run-up to Saturday's match.

But it is the fun and games going on in the hours leading up to kick-off that Martinez believes the players must try to cocoon themselves away from.

"We've got to stay away from all the festivities taking place before the game," he said.

"Realistically, though, that's going to be a hard thing to do - especially with things going on around us on the pitch just before kick-off.

"Maybe each of us should sit down the day before the match and go through in our own minds what it's going to be like at the Vetch on Saturday.

"Mentally, we need to try to get our heads round what the atmosphere's going to be like well in advance so that, come kick-off time, we're relaxed and totally focused on the game."

As emotional as Swans fans will be about waving goodbye to the Vetch, most will be keener to see their side pick up three vital points than spend the afternoon wallowing in nostalgia.

Failure to beat Shrewsbury and the chances are Swansea - currently two points adrift of the automatic promotion places -

will be playing another League Two fixture at the Vetch in the shape of a play-off semi-final.

"It's a massive game," Martinez said. "We know what we have to do to achieve the dream we all had at the start of the season.

"We need to win both of our last two games and, with great support from the fans on Saturday and at Bury on the last day, we're confident that we can achieve it."

Shrewsbury manager Gary Peters is not expected to make the to trip to Vetch Field on Saturday. The Gay Meadow chief, who missed the 1-1 draw with Notts County last weekend, is set to be scouting players for the Shrews.

The former Preston and Exeter boss will leave assistant manager Mick Wadsworth in charge.

Wadsworth, Sir Bobby Robson's former No. 2 at Newcastle, was in charge on Saturday as Shrewsbury guaranteed themselves their League Two status for at least another season.

''If I don't go, it is for all the right reasons,'' Peters said. ''Mick Wadsworth can do what I do on match days standing on his head anyway.

''If I'm not there then the reason I may not go is because I will be watching a player who might possibly be a signing for Shrewsbury next season.''

When the clubs met back on November 20, it was Peters's first game in charge of the Shropshire club after having taken over the reins from Jimmy Quinn, who had resigned after a disastrous start to the campaign.

Kevin McLeod has set his sights on a cameo role in Swansea City's promotion bid with Andy Robinson's season all but over. Winger McLeod is the obvious candidate to fill the left-midfield berth made vacant following Robinson's sending off at Bristol Rovers last Saturday.

After Kenny Jackett opted not to appeal, Robinson faces a four-match ban that will see him sidelined until the play-off final if Swansea miss out on the top three but progress that far.

And McLeod, thrown on in a losing cause at Rovers, hopes to seize the chance to make his mark at Vetch Field.

Signed from Queens Park Rangers in a deal reportedly worth £60,000 back in February, the former Everton flyer has lacked fitness after a draining bout of laryngitis and is yet to hit top form in a Swansea shirt.

''I want to do it for Kenny,'' the 24-year-old said.

''He had me at QPR and then when he came here he brought me with him.

''He wanted me and now I want to give him something back.

''What I've got to do is get my head down and concentrate on getting my fitness right and when I've done that, I'm confident my ability will come through.''

McLeod should start when Shrewsbury Town arrive for the Vetch's last ever league game this weekend.

Defeat at Rovers means Swansea may be forced into the play-offs even if they overcome the Shrews and then win at Bury on the final day of the regular season.

But McLeod, part of the QPR side that lost to Cardiff City in the Second Division play-off final two years ago, remains optimistic.

''If we do end up in play-offs then hopefully I'll be fit enough to get at people and do my bit for the team,'' he added.

''But saying that, all the teams above us dropped points on Saturday and it's definitely not all over for us as far as the top three goes.''

McLeod has joined Lee Trundle in expressing sympathy for fellow Scouser Robinson after his clash with Rovers striker Ryan Williams brought a second red card of the season.

''He shouldn't have gone over there and got involved really, but that's Robbo,'' McLeod said.

''He wants it that much and he has got that much ambition that he wanted to put things right. I felt sorry for him.

''It was one of those games where they just kicked us and battered us. With the pitch making it difficult too, things can happen.''

Kenny Jackett insists he has no sympathy for Andy Robinson after fining the troubled midfielder for the third time this season. Robinson is believed to have been docked another two weeks' wages following his Bristol Rovers red card after similar punishments for his sending-off at Shrewsbury last November and his arrest in The Kingsway in February.

And Jackett has warned that Robinson's disciplinary record must now improve - though he is adamant the talented Scouser has a Swansea future.

''Some managers might think about getting rid of a player in this situation,'' Jackett conceded. ''But I won't be doing that. I don't think that's right for me or for the club. But Andy has to learn to channel his aggression into something positive because it's cost him a lot of money this season and it's cost his team-mates.

''He is not doing his own career any good and he's not doing anyone else's career any good. He can argue and argue but he's got to take the responsibility.

''He should not have got himself in the situation where the referee had to make a decision and, to be honest, I've got no sympathy with him.''

Robinson faces a minimum four-match ban after clashing with Ryan Williams and risks a longer lay-off after failing to leave the field promptly when referee Mark Cowburn had shown red.

To make matters worse, the former Tranmere reserve-teamer was involved in angry exchanges with home supporters and stewards on his way down the tunnel.

''We will have to see whether the referee or anyone else puts in any report, but as yet nothing's come back about Andy's behaviour as he left the field,'' Jackett added.

''Bristol, like Swansea, is an intimidating place and we couldn't get anybody round fast enough to escort him off the pitch.

''One or two of our office staff said a couple of fans were baiting him and he was giving some verbals back, but they don't think it went any further.''

Jackett's frustration is two-fold - first he has lost one of his most gifted players for the promotion run-in and second he hoped Robinson's problems were in the past.

''It's disappointing,'' the Swansea boss went on. ''He has had the nightclub incident and two red cards this season and really it's a contradiction. He's a likeable man and a good footballer. He is enthusiastic, he trains hard, he plays hard and he comes into work to work. But he is quite easy to wind up and he has to change that. He has to stop and walk away. His football ability is considerable and he must concentrate on hurting opponents with that.

''I've shown him the video from Saturday. Roberto (Martinez) was taking our free-kick and Andy should have been looking for the ball, not arguing with their player. I've told him that's what I want.''

Though Robinson will be suspended, Jackett's squad have at least avoided any fresh injury problems ahead of Saturday's must-win meeting with Shrewsbury.

More than 100 leftover tickets for the game were expected to sell out within minutes this morning after long queues formed outside the William Street office.

Yeovil

GLOVERS' defender Kevin Amankwaah is trying to remain calm ahead of Saturday's clash with title rivals Southend.

''We're all relaxed and training with a smile on our faces and there is a good atmosphere in the camp," he said. ''But we go to Southend knowing that it is probably a title decider and it is a massive game for everyone.''

SOUTHEND

Boss Steve Tilson is hoping that his side do not repeat their display against Oxford - the Shrimpers went down 2-1 - when they meet Yeovil on Saturday.

''We have no excuses for the way we played against Oxford - we just didn't perform in the first 45 minutes,'' he said. ''If we start like that against Yeovil then we will certainly get beat.''

SCUNTHORPE

Brian Laws is hoping that the Iron can secure automatic promotion this weekend when his side face Bristol Rovers.

''If the results go well for us on Saturday we can go up, if not it will go to the last day of the season.

''And with the way the league has gone this year I honestly think it will go down to the last day.

''There's one point separating the top three teams now - that's incredible.''

MACCLESFIELD

After accepting that the Silkmen's only chance of going up was through the play-offs last week, Brian Horton has once again got one eye on that final automatic promotion spot.

''We are all tense as there is still a lot to play for,'' said Horton. ''There is still a lot at stake and the results at the weekend have put us back in a with a shout. If we win our next two games you never know what could happen.''

LINCOLN

Following their 1-0 defeat by Northampton at the weekend, Imps boss Keith Alexander is remaining philosophical.

''There's no point in moaning and groaning. We lost and didn't do particularly well so we've got to do better at home to Darlington on Saturday - and we will do.''

SWANSEA CITY winger Kevin McLeod aims to turn the pain of Andy Robinson's latest red card into his gain and salvage some joy from the "worst season of my career".

The Swans' automatic promotion hopes suffered a double blow on Saturday when influential midfielder Robinson was dismissed for violent conduct midway through the bleak 2-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers.

Boss Kenny Jackett has decided not to appeal against Robinson's sending off for a head-butt on midfielder Ryan Williams, meaning he won't be available again this season unless Swansea end up in the League Two play-off final.

But Robinson's absence opens the door for former Everton winger McLeod who, by his own admission, has failed to perform to his full potential since arriving at the Vetch from Queens Park Rangers in February.

And with two games remaining for Swansea to keep their automatic promotion dream alive, McLeod knows now is the perfect time for him to finally play a key role.

"I know I haven't really performed in the two months I've been at Swansea," said McLeod. "In fact, for one reason or another, I'd say this has probably been the worst season of my career. It was a big disappointment not to be playing regular first-team football at QPR and I thought coming to Swansea would help me rediscover top form again.

"But fitness has been a bit of a problem and the disappointing thing is the Swansea fans still haven't seen the best of me. I've got to work hard on my fitness and hope my ability comes through. I need to get my head down and make sure I'm in good shape for the play-offs if that's where we end up this season."

McLeod has made just six starts for Swansea since joining the club on February 16.

But he came on for the second half at the Memorial Stadium and, with Robinson out of the midfield equation after his second red card of the season, could well start the final two matches against Shrewsbury and Bury.

With Swansea still in with a shout of automatic promotion - they trail the top three by two points - McLeod might have cause to revise his bleak assessment of his season.

"Helping Swansea get promoted would be the perfect way to make up for a disappointing last few months," said the 24-year-old Liverpudlian. "Kenny gave me another bite of the cherry by bringing me to Swansea and I'm keen to repay him over the last couple of games of this season."

LEE TRUNDLE insists being named one of League Two's best players of the season will mean little to him if Swansea City miss out on promotion.

Trundle and Swans team-mate Sam Ricketts were celebrating yesterday after both were included in the Professional Footballers' Association League Two team of the season.

For Ricketts, the honour is fitting recognition for an astonishing 12 months in which the defender has gone from non-league footballer to full Wales international.

And star striker Trundle is included for the second successive year having continued to impress his fellow professionals with a haul of 23 goals in his second year at the Vetch.

But, as the Welsh club prepare for two final league fixtures that will shape their destiny, Swansea's top-scorer would gladly swap the accolade for the guarantee of promotion to League One.

"Being in the PFA team of the year is a nice honour to have because it's voted for by your fellow professionals," said the former Wrexham striker.

"But really it won't mean a great deal if we miss out on promotion this season.

"There's no point being named in the team of the season if, at the end of it, I'm still a League Two player."

Ricketts, who this time last year was playing Conference football at Telford, said several other Swans players deserved PFA recognition for their efforts this season.

"Personally, I'm very pleased to be included in the team of the year. It's been a great season for me," said Ricketts, who earned the first of three Wales caps against Hungary in February.

"There are other players at Swansea besides myself and Lee who are good enough to be in the League Two team.

"I think Garry Monk, for instance, has probably been the best centre-half in the league and there are several others I could name.

"It's not just about individuals, though - I think the team as a whole has done well this season.

"But the award we all want - the biggest award - is promotion."

Neither Cardiff City nor Wrexham had a player in their respective divisional sides.

Meanwhile, England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson believes PFA Player of the Year John Terry and Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard would walk into any team in the world.

Terry was honoured by his fellow professionals after a season in which Chelsea's miserly defence has brought the club success at home and progress abroad.

Lampard, nominated for the award, was named in the team of the year with Terry and Eriksson is not surprised.

Eriksson said, "If you talk about Terry and Frank Lampard, they could play in any team in the world.

"They have been great players for Chelsea, very important for Chelsea and very important for England."

Although Terry walked away with the top award, Eriksson is most impressed by the extent of Lampard's improvement under the tutelage of Jose Mourinho.

The Swede said, "He's one of the best in the world and you have Steven Gerrard as well of course.

"Frank Lampard, the progress he's made - you couldn't believe he could be that good when he played for West Ham.

"On the pitch that's going to be a big battle. I'm happy because I can pick both of them for England."

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney was named PFA Young Player of the Year, edging out runner-up Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) and third-placed Arjen Robben (Chelsea).

And the 19-year-old reflected, "No disrespect to Everton, but I think I have gone up in my game this year, with all the top-class players that I am working with at Manchester United and to be working with Sir Alex Ferguson is a privilege.

"As a footballer, you are always looking to improve and learn from the people around you.

"If I keep learning and keep my feet on the ground then hopefully I can start winning more trophies.

"I would have liked to have scored more goals - a goal every other game is good, but as a forward, I always want to be scoring more.

"Obviously you cannot say you will be the best player in the world, because there are other unbelievable players out there.

"It would be great when people look back at my career and to have them say I was the best, but I have just got to keep practising and training hard to reach that level."

Cancel all holidays, put the sun cream away until June. All at Swansea City, staff and those in the stands, must now contemplate spending May in the emotional mangle.

Next weekend's visit of Shrewsbury Town, the Vetch Field's final league fixture, was supposed to be the crying game, but defeat at Bristol Rovers could mean more tears over a further couple of weeks.

The play-offs, you fear, are coming.

There is at least one Swan who knows he will have his feet up next month - Andy Robinson.

With the club deciding not to appeal, one of Kenny Jackett's most gifted players will be suspended for his team's next four matches after disappearing in the red mist for the second time this season.

Out of Shrewsbury and the final-day trip to Bury, Robinson will miss both play-off semi-finals if Swansea are forced down that route.

His failure to leave the pitch promptly after Saturday's dismissal - he had to be dragged off by team-mates - might even mean a longer ban if the Football Association of Wales show any interest.

Potentially, then, Robinson could miss a Millennium Stadium showpiece after stepping into somebody else's argument.

Rovers striker Ryan Williams had already niggled various opponents when he should have been booked for chopping down Sam Ricketts.

Unlike the referee, Robinson had had enough, travelling from the left flank to the right to remonstrate with Williams, 5ft 5in and apparently fixing for a fight.

As the pair came together, Williams rocked his head back as if he had been butted and Robinson, just as at Shrewsbury last November, was in the showers before half-time.

Robinson in hot water. One of themes of the season really.

Shown red for butting at Gay Meadow then read his rights on the Kingsway in February, 2004-5 has been a chequered campaign for the ex-removals man from Birkenhead.

This time he may have been unfortunate, but if you don't buy a ticket, you can't, er, lose the raffle.

Whatever Williams got up to, there was no escaping the fact that Robinson need not have got involved.

''I was disappointed that Andy put himself in that situation because we've been there before at Shrewsbury,'' Jackett lamented.

''I've seen the incident in slow motion and my honest opinion is that either player could have got sent off or they both could have.

''They went head to head, but Andy did not throw his head into the other player's face and in that sense it was a harsh decision.

''As you could see from his reaction on the pitch, he is very upset and he feels he's been hard done by.

''But I'll say again, he shouldn't have been there in the first place and could have avoided the whole situation.

''Players can get reputations and if that happens people will target you. People will say 'you can wind him up easily' and there's only one person who can break that cycle - and that's Andy.''

It is just a pity for Robinson, and indeed the rest of Jackett's squad, that he will probably not get the chance to reform before next season.

Without his talents to call on, the chances of Swansea being in League One come August are a little slimmer.

The Atkins diet has also taken its toll, Ian Atkins successfully getting his mid-table side in the mood despite their non-existent need for points.

Rovers were bitter about their controversial defeat at the Vetch earlier in the season - Atkins had another grumble about Lee Trundle's retaken penalty in his programme notes - and here they exacted revenge.

On a pitch fit for a pub match, Rovers were the doormen and Swansea the visitors missing from the guest list.

Each pass to Trundle, for instance, came with a complimentary blue and white boot.

''To some degree they had the measure of us in attack,'' Jackett conceded.

Atkins's men made a mess of the division's meanest defence, too, to destroy Swansea's faint hopes of a promotion celebration in April in time for the end of the Vetch.

Richard Walker put Rovers ahead after Lee Thorpe marked his return to the Memorial Stadium with a horrible slice on the edge of his own box and Junior Agogo nodded the second long before Robinson walked.

Swansea battled gamely with 10 men - they have had plenty of practice this season - and might have scared their hosts had Ryan Clarke not diverted Izzy Iriekpen's header on to the bar midway through the second half.

But that was the only work for the Rovers keeper, and the dismissal of his captain, James Hunt, for a lunge on Iriekpen came too late to influence the result.

At least there was some welcome news from elsewhere, with Southend, Yeovil and Scunthorpe all failing to win.

But the realisation that a handsome Swansea success would have put them on top of the league actually added to Welsh frustration.

As it is, they are two points adrift in fourth and know that even victories from their two remaining games may not be enough to prevent the play-offs.

Lose to Shrewsbury, when Jackett's men will need to cope with the pressure of the occasion, or at Bury, when their travelling troubles must be overcome, and all automatic promotion hopes can be scratched.

A bit like those summer holidays, really.

Lee Trundle has leapt to the defence of Andy Robinson after his red card in Swansea City's dismal 2-0 defeat at Bristol Rovers. Robinson will be banned for a minimum four matches after boss Kenny Jackett opted not to appeal.

The Scouse midfielder, sent off for a butt at Shrewsbury last November, walked a minute for the break for the same offence at the Memorial Stadium.

Rovers striker Ryan Williams was the alleged victim, jolting his head back as if Robinson had made contact when the pair squared up.

But Trundle insisted: ''I had a perfect view of it and the ref was cheated. I've got no time for players like him (Williams). He pulled his head away as if he had been butted when he hadn't been touched.

''They walked up to each other and then he pulled his head away. Andy didn't put his head in and I'll back him up to the hilt on that.''

Furious Robinson had to be dragged away by team-mates after lunging at Williams when the red card was shown and risks an additional ban for not leaving the field promptly. The talented 25-year-old then remonstrated with a home supporter as he went down the tunnel.

Trundle added: ''Andy's absolutely distraught. After he got sent off at Shrewsbury he held his hands up because he knew he had done wrong, but this time he didn't do anything.

''We're at a crucial stage of the season and now it looks as though we're going to be without Andy. That's a big blow because he's a key player. He creates problems for other teams and he's someone we need.

''To lose Andy because of what he (Williams) did isn't right and I feel for him.''

Jackett said Robinson had been harshly treated and dismissed the suggestion that his Swansea future could come into question because of this season's disciplinary troubles.

But he admitted: "We're not going to appeal and Andy has to take responsibility for walking over in an aggressive manner even though there was no butt."

Robinson's dismissal dashed realistic hopes of a comeback after Richard Walker and Junior Agogo struck inside the first 26 minutes.

With just four points taken from 24 on the road, Swansea return home next weekend for the different pressure of the last league game at Vetch Field.

''There are various functions and dinners going on all week, but we have to leave that to the legends,'' Jackett said. ''The current players need to concentrate on doing their talking on the pitch.''

They know that despite other results being kind on Saturday, even a maximum six points from now on in may not be enough for automatic promotion.

But Trundle declared: ''We're not going to contemplate the play-offs until it's mathematically impossible for us to finish in the top three. We'll keep fighting.''

Trundle has made the team for a second successive season
Swansea's Sam Ricketts and Lee Trundle have been named in the Professional Footballers' Association League Two Team of the Year.
The accolade caps a magnificent year for Ricketts who has gone from playing non-League football to making his full international debut for Wales.

Trundle, who also made the Division Three last season, is Swansea's top scorer with 23 goals so far.

Cardiff and Wrexham failed to have a player in their divisional sides.

Ian atkins dodged another potential war of words with Swansea by claiming he didn't see the incident that led to Andy Robinson's first-half red card.

The Bristol Rovers boss courted controversy earlier in the season when he accused Swans fans of influencing the referee during his side's 1-0 defeat at the Vetch.

Atkins (pictured left) was furious that Swansea won that match with a disputed, twice-taken Lee Trundle penalty.

But on Saturday, unsurprisingly given he'd just seen his side record a comfortable 2-0 win, Atkins avoided more cross words with the Welsh side by somewhat dubiously claiming he didn't see the flare-up between Robinson and Rovers midfielder Ryan Williams.

'I genuinely didn't see what happened,' said the Pirates boss. 'My players didn't say a lot about it and I can't comment on it until I see a video of the incident.

'I honestly didn't see it because my head was turned.'

Bristol were reduced to 10 men themselves right at the death when skipper James Hunt was dismissed for a two-footed challenge on Izzy Iriekpen.

'It's very difficult when the ball is bouncing as it was then and your feet come off the ground,' Atkins said. 'Sometimes there is intent and sometimes there isn't. No-one thought there was any intent on James' part.'

Atkins was delighted with the manner in which his side outmuscled Swansea and prevented them causing any major problems in the final third of the pitch.

'Everyone was up for it and Swansea struggled to cope with us,' he said.

'When we're in that kind of mood, we're capable of beating anyone in the division.'

But Atkins reckons Kenny Jackett's side will still clinch automatic promotion.

'Swansea can still go straight up, of course they can,' he said. 'They're a good side and other results have gone well for them.

'A win against Shrewsbury at the weekend could put them back into the top three. As I said before the match, I want them out of the way this season.'

SWANSEA City fans last night criticised security arrangements at the club's away game with Bristol Rovers on Saturday, which was marred by after-match violence.

Nine arrests were made by Avon and Somerset Police when up to 150 people threw missiles at officers.

Five officers were hurt and one was taken to the Bristol Royal Infirmary with a head injury but was released after treatment.

The West Country force would not say yesterday how many of those arrested were from South Wales but it is understood eight were from Bristol and one was from Swansea.

The problems occurred after the game when a group of fans started pelting police with stones and other objects.

It is understood the Swansea fans were still inside the ground at the time.

The police had been called to prevent clashes between rival sets of fans.

Bristol Rovers is already facing an investigation after some of their supporters were caught throwing objects during an away game with Yeovil in February of this year.

And the Division Two club had also been reported to the Football Association earlier in the season after fans threw objects during a game at Oxford United.

The trouble on Saturday happened around 40 minutes after the end of Swansea City's highly charged 2-0 defeat by Rovers.

On the pitch, Swansea's Andy Robinson who was suspended by the club earlier this year after a nightclub incident, was sent off for apparently head- butting an opponent.

Off the pitch, police and stewards at Bristol Rovers's Memorial Ground kept Swansea fans in for 40 minutes hoping Bristol fans would disperse.

Sam Ashlin, a chef at the Tinto Lounge on Gloucester Road, watched the situation develop outside the restaurant.

He said, "All of a sudden there were 12 policemen lined up across Gloucester Road. They closed the entire road.

"The violence was obviously organised, they had a kid going round taking messages to people telling them where the action was.

"It was just mindless football violence, a brawl."

Swansea supporter Dave Williams of Langland, Swansea said yesterday, "There were groups of louts waiting for us on street corners.

"I don't know why something was not done to clear a path for visiting fans. It was like walking into a war zone."

In Bristol's Gloucester Road there were verbal exchanges between Swansea and Bristol fans.

A man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer and eight others taken into custody in connection with public order offences.

They were released on bail on Saturday night and will appear in court in Bristol over the next few weeks.

At the height of the trouble a police helicopter hovered overhead and mounted police officers and police dogs were called to the scene.

However, Supt Adrian Coombs, of Avon and Somerset Police, said he did not regard disorder between rival fans either before, during or after the match to be serious.

He said, "When the disorder in the Gloucester Road area started officers were deployed and acted quickly and appropriately.

"Some damage was caused to local businesses but the situation was controlled quickly and officers dealt with it with the utmost professionalism."