Having heard plenty about the Swans pre-season signings in the local media, today was my first opportunity to see them in action at the liberty stadium, with the Swans taking on Spanish la liga outfit Levante UD.
The game also gave me an opportunity to check out my new season ticket seat in the Asda East Stand – also known as the Asbo East Stand due to some of the clientele that frequent it at Swans home games. Thankfully I was impressed and happy with my lot – a more central view of the pitch – so it was a wise move 🙂
A short video clip of the kick-off – which I took – can be viewed at the usual location on YouTube. As for the game itself, well the Swans ran out comfortable 2 nil winners (with 2 goals also being disallowed for offside) – so the 7,000 odd crowd went home happy in the warm, bright August sunshine. For me, the new boys impressed and I’m looking forward to seeing them take on League One’s finest during the season.
Darius De Vries pulled off a couple of decent saves, but more importantly commanded his area and those in front of him well – take note Willy G (whether you’re to be a Jack or an MK Don).
Angel Rangel impressed me more and more as the game went on. Hungry for the ball and good link-up with little Leon. The downside for me was his positional play or rather his tendency to go walkabout.
Jason Scotland – touted as LT10’s replacement, but for me a different type of player tbh. Another one who came into the game more and more – a strong and skillful player though and whom took his very 1st Liberty Stadium goal with a cool finish (as can be see in the picture below).
‘Bussy’ Bauza (should be called busy or bee – ‘cos he was buzzing around), Paul Anderson (very very pacy), Joe Allon (is he shorter than Leon?) and Matty Collins also made appearances – alebit very late in the game.
But the pick of the bunch for me was Ferrie Bodde. A fiesty fellow who commanded the middle of the park and certainly made his presence felt. Definately someone who could go further. One negative comment I would make about him though is that his temperament will need to be controlled – as today he began to let the Spaniards niggly off-the-ball antics wind him up, culminating in a bit of pushing and shoving.
Still on this showing I’m optimistic of our League One chances this year – more optimistic in fact than I’ve been for a long long time. Oh well, it all starts in earnest next Saturday with a visit to Boundary Park when the Swans take on the Latics in the opening game of the 2007-2008 campaign.
With the weather being so warm and sunny we all decided to head out on the bikes this morning – after taking the best part of an hour to get DDWT Junior ready. The 12 mile ride along the cycle path took us up as far as Ystalyfera. It’s on days like today when you realise how picturesque the Swansea Valley is, especially when you take your time to explore the best that nature has to offer. It’s true what people say, we really do take for granted what is in our very own backyard.
As Sunday is always my weighing day – I’ve decided that after today I’ll be moving onto a fortnightly weight check not a weekly one. My reasoning is that I was beginning to beat myself up psychologically when I wasn’t achieveing my target for that week and consequently it’s been proving detrimental to the longer term goal of getting to 16st exactly. Anyway, until next time the tale of the scale is 16st 11lbs.