Some of you may wonder why I mention this season. Yes, it was a very important campaign in the history of the club, as, for the first time ever, they played in what was then the top flight of British football, the First Division. Currently in the team we still have one of the legends who achieved this incredible promotion, Alan Curtis (reserve team coach and club man where he played 570 games between Swansea City, Leeds United, Cardiff City, Southampton and Stoke City, scoring 116 goals), who explained to me all the proud memories of that unforgettable season. The first thing he said was the importance of having a great coach and friend, the legendary John Benjamin Toshack we all know, who led the First Division up 4 categories in 4 consecutive seasons. In addition, 1981-1982 will always be remembered for being the first where the UK was introduced to 3 points per win. Curtis recalled the importance of winning, being a large difference in points from the previous season where victory and a draw only differed by a point .
Swansea began their adventure in the 'Top Flight' with two straight wins, not bad! But I also like to emphasize a date much talked about among the fans of Swansea and of course the same Curtis: October 22, 1981. Then Swansea, for the first time in its history, became leader of the highest division with 22 points gained at Stoke City (1-2) and Curtis then explained to me that it was a Stoke team with great physical presence, much like the current team. He himself remembered it as if it were yesterday, saying that was a great moment for the country and after that date the team stayed in the top 6 all season, finishing in the same position (6th) with 69 points, finishing above clubs like Leeds United, Aston Villa, or Southampton, and if it were not for the accumulation of cup matches and European competition they could have been in the Top 3. We can see the difference 31 years later, where we have returned to the top flight at the moment but we are fighting for different goals. We're all hoping for different things than they did, and we know it'll be difficult to do as well, but we'll aim to finish as high as we can.
Wolves;
The second game in a row away from home, and in front of the Sky Sports cameras, as well as being live on GoIT in Spain. Once again travelling with the team was one of my best friends in the world of football, Andrea Orlandi, after being out for a long time with a knee problem: he made his official PL debut when he came on in the second half. We started the game with lots of aggression but Wolves were the first to send a warning shot. We managed to lead 2-0 in the first half thanks to goals from Danny Graham - 3 in his last 3 - and Joe Allen got his first of the season, and what's more we did it playing good football.
In the second half we starting strong but little by little we were losing the possession, and what's more we missed clear chances to finish the match. It all looked won, but it's never like that in football. Wolves made 3 chances with less than 10 minutes to go, and our anxiety to get the three points took it's toll; our lines dropped right back and we gave loads of room to the other team, and they started to bombard the box with balls. It was like this we conceded a corner and finally 2 minutes later the unthinkable happened, we tied because of a lack of defensive organisation and we weren't aggressive enough when we needed to be defending a good result away from home. The final result was 2-2, but this was a big deception. It was another lesson to learn but 1 point has broken our run of 4 losses on the bounce away from home. We've got 9 points, 3 more than Bolton, who are falling and who we're playing next Saturday in the Liberty Stadium, but as well as this we're only 3 points off the European spots!
Interesting links;
Stats Zone from the PL on FourFourTwo showing Rangel completing 46 out of 51 passes.
Angel has the second most passes in the PL after Yaya Toure.
Angel is the best defender in the Premier League Fantasy Football on Yahoo. He's also ranked 22nd out of all players in the competition.
