With the premiere of Jack To A King coming soon (the upcoming film about the Swans' meteoric rise through the divisions), Andrew McGlashan looks at just what has made our story so special
Saturday’s win at the Theatre of Dreams was a fitting location for yet another epic chapter in the fairy tale story that is the last decade at Swansea City. As I watched the Jack Army celebrating Swansea’s first league win at arguably the most iconic ground in world football from an Amsterdam bar, I couldn’t help but think of where I was ten years previously.
I was with 9,000 other Swans fans watching us lose 2-0 at home to Northampton. Instead of going crazy as Siggy scored the winner against United, I was sat head in hands as Sam Ricketts scored a late own goal to seal the points for the Cobblers. At that time the suggestion of winning at Old Trafford was beyond any of our wildest imaginations as all focus turned to our tricky away fixture at Rochdale the coming Tuesday. Oh how far we have come.
So far in fact that there is actually a film, Jack to a King, premiering in Leicester Square on 12th September about Swansea’s recent rise. Let that sink in for a second. There is a film about the Swans. A film! How many other teams in world football can say that?! Ironically, United can following the recent release of The Class of ‘92 but I’m sure that our film, as our team was on Saturday, will be better!
Why will it be better? Because I, like many thousands of Jack Army members, are a part of it. We marched through Swansea city centre as part of the “Petty Out” campaign. We stormed the pitch at the final whistle of the Hull game. We’ve celebrated promotions at Bury, Gillingham and Wembley and sat broken hearted after the play-off final in Cardiff. We’ve watched Trundle, Tate, Monk, Leon and Ash give everything they have week after week. We’ve even had to watch Durkan, Amankwaah and Lopez!
We’ve chanted for Roberto and Brendan and were left devastated when they left. We’ve watched our board steer us from the depths of the league basement to major honours and European football. Most of all, however, it remains “we” as we, the fans, still own 20% of the club. The club is as much the fans as it is anyone else. This is what sets us apart from so many in the increasingly commercial and business driven football world - including those chaps in red fourty-five minutes down the M4.
What we as fans of Swansea City have experienced during this stratospheric rise is something which really couldn’t have been scripted. In fact, if you had read the script to me as I left the Northampton game back in 2004 I would have deemed it beyond the stuff of Hollywood. I would have also suggested you ease up on the pints - what has unfolded since truly has been a story more than worthy of the Theatre of Dreams.
So as I come to terms with the fact that our story is to be shown on the silver screen, I urge you to just take a moment and realise that we have been part of a golden time in the history of Swansea City. This film is a celebration of every man, woman and child who have contributed to an outrageous success story. Long may the story continue.
I’ll see you all in the cinema queue on 12th September.
Thanks to Andrew for this great piece - I'm really looking forward to the film! You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AJMcGlashan