Steve Jupp, BA11's Club Historian, contemplates our final pre-season friendly against a tasty opponent.
With the big Southern League Premier Division kick-off at Gosport Borough just a week away, Badgers Hill stages The Robins' final friendly on Saturday with an intriguing fixture against Swansea City U21s.
Danny Greaves will have had plenty of food for thought following the midweek mauling by Bath City but there is more to be learned from a thorough test by a superior side, all part of the preparations for August 10th.
He will have his fingers crossed, however, that there will be no further injuries to his squad and everyone's best wishes go out to Reece Rusher for a speedy recovery. There are few finer sights in football than RR in full flight, tormenting opposition defences.
The young Swans compete in the southern section of the Professional Development League, along with counterparts from a smattering of Premier League, fellow Championship and League One teams. In 2023, they finished third before going one better last term, qualifying for the semis in second spot where they went down to northern winners Sheffield United.
Swansea's recent history has been a story of extreme rises and falls, probably unmatched by any other full-time club. In 1978, they were a Fourth Division outfit and with John Toshack at the helm, climbed to the top flight just three years later, famously trouncing Leeds 5-1 on the opening day. They finished an incredible sixth that season but by the mid 80s, suffered a rapid return to Division Four.
They reached a low point in 2003, having to win on the final day to avoid relegation to the National League but just eight years later, this time under Brendan Rodgers, rose all the way to the Premier League, retaining top flight status until 2018.
It was during this period that they won their only major trophy, the 2013 League Cup (beating Bradford City 5-0 in the final), earning a Europa League place the following season where they went out to Napoli in the Round of 32 but not before winning 3-0 away to Valencia in the group stage.
A couple of years ago, Frome hosted a similarly young Southampton side pre-season, drawing an entertaining contest 2-2, and more of the same should be in store on Saturday when we will be a little closer to formulating the starting XI for the get-go at Gosport.
If you need more insight into the ninety minutes played against Bath earlier this week, have a listen to the latest episode of BA11's very own podcast as Steve and Zeb report live from Badgers Hill and striker James Ollis gives us his talking points ahead of the league season.
Now the fixture list is out, don't miss the chance to take advantage of our Season Tickets which you can secure on the FanBase app (link below) alongside admission to tomorrow's friendly against Swansea City U21s and our opening few league fixtures!
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