We are Premier League!

So today I took a trip down to the Gnoll, Neath to watch an English Premier League football club grace our pitch....luckily it was local team Swansea City. Sadly though they were not wearing their home kit of all white, but rather their away kit which makes them look more like the Holland international team. To be fair though the way Swansea play means sometimes it is like Holland, pass and move etc.

It was a preseason friendly between the two sides as they warm up for their respective seasons, at the end of the day Neath won 1-0 via a penalty by Chris Jones. A good crowd turned out and as the Neath match day announcer said most Neath fans are also Swansea City fans so everyone was a winner. In fact Neath also had a number of ex Swansea players in their team, most notably Lee Trundle and Kristian O'Leary.

A big credit to Swansea City officials and players, they may be Premier League now but that didn't mean that they didn't have time for their fans, on the contrary it was the opposite. They were signing autographs, having their pictures taken and chatting with fans all day, what a refreshing change from some of the prima donna behaviour by other Premier League team's players.

I can understand the point of preseason friendlies for clubs, you're trying to get your fitness and touch back, but as for other sorts of friendlies like some of the international games I really don't see the point, apart from generating money. Today's game was good but with nothing really at stake, some of the tackles were not as hard as perhaps they would normally have been, and I think its difficult for the fans to get in the games as well and generate some atmosphere.

Today's blip shows the magic moment of Chris Jones tucking the penalty away in Swansea's goal. I'm impressed with my little camera as this shot was taken at the far end of the ground.