Striker Carl Heggs, the man who came so close to firing Swansea City into the Second Division, admitted he had to hold back the tears as the emotion of a Wembley defeat swept through a stunned dressing room.
"There were a few tears shed by a number of players in the dressing room afterwards," explained Heggs. "I had to hold them back myself. It's a sad day for everyone - the players, the fans and the club - and certainly one of the saddest days in my life."
Heggs, whose end of season form forced him back into manager Jan Molby's Wembley plans, thought he had given the Swans the vital breakthrough as early as the sixth minute with a superb turn and shot which brought a breathtaking save out of goalkeeper Andy Woodman. "After I hit it I could see it sneaking in under the bar," added Heggs. "But the 'keeper somehow managed to push it over. I couldn't believe it. But it's all about ifs and buts in this game."
IF it had gone in, it would have probably been enough in such a tight game to guide Swansea to a Wembley win and the Second Division next season. BUT it wasn't to be.
Striker Steve Torpey stood in the shadows of the Twin Towers and openly predicted that Swansea City would bounce back from their Wembley woe in style next season.
"We'll be going all out for one of the automatic promotion places next season." explained Torpey. "And I'm certain we'll bounce back. "Our start let us down this season. It's hard to put your finger on any one reason, perhaps it was the system we played early on. Certainly, once we changed from five at the back, the second half of our season was superb."
"Billy (Ayre) must take some of the credit for getting us this far though. I know Jan gets all the praise and attention, and that's understandable for who he is, but Billy has played an equal part and deserves a big mention."
But, despite the optimism for next season, Torpey, who still has another two years to run on his Vetch Field contract, found it hard to hide the disappointment shown on his face and those of his fellow teammates.
"It's a bad way to lose with the last kick of a match, especially when we played better than them. We certainly didn't deserve to go out like that."
One of my dreams was to play at Wembley. But as it turned out, it was the most disappointing game of my life. We played well but, unfortunately, it all fell apart in the last minute. Amazing things like this tend to happen in football.
I don't want to go to Wembley again next season. I want to go straight into the Second Division with Swansea without going via the play-offs. We've got to get our heads up for the start of next season and finish the job.
Everyone's devastated. I looked at the clock and it was stuck on 90 minutes. I thought we were through into extra-time.
I broke early from the wall, but everyone does it. You either get away with it or you don't - I didn't.
I've said enough about referees this season. But it's always disappointing when a free-kick is taken twice against you.
But I think if they hadn't scored with the second one, the referee would probably have let them take a third one.
I thought it was going into extra-time. I don't know where the referee got all that injury time from in the second half.
But you can't change it now.
Well, what a day wembley was. The disappointment is huge among all swansea fans, although i think that it could well be a blessing in disguise. If a new consortium comes in with good support and then Molby stays and BUILDS on the squad he has, then there will be no one to touch us next season, where we won't need to worry about the playoffs.
The most annoying aspect of the day, were the reports in papers, as to Northampton's great victory. The sunday and monday times, informed us among other things that Northampton outsung the Swans fans, John Gayle proved a real handful to the swans defence and that the man who nearly won it for us was Jan Molby. Wrong, Wrong and Wrong again.
I did not hear Nrothampton sing untill their fortunate goal and all credit must go to swans fans for raising wembley with their voices. John Gayle, was awful and C Edwards kept him in his pocket all afternoon. His threat was no greater than Andy Woodman's and he played in goal. Jan the Man, although a god to swans fans had a terrible game on saturday amd looked slow and unfit. He came nowhere near winning the game for us and methinks that a midfield comprising of Penney, Jenkins and Ampadu, would have caused Nortthampton more problems. I though Ampadu was excellent and worked very hard and yet recieved no support. It was this area where i think we could have beaten them.
My final point about wembley, and last season was the glaring lack of a goal scoring forward. If he does nothing else this summer, jan must look for a man to score 25/30 goals next season. If he can find the such person, then we will be champions, it is that simple. The swans never had anyone with the paochers instinct to score the goals and it will not happen from the forwards he has. On that point however, i would like to see David Thomas put in centre midfield with a playmaker, as he has so much enthusiasim and commitment that he could be the terrier in midfield that we need.
Anyway, roll on August and this time let's not make any mistakes.
Despite the result, what a great day and what outstanding support. If we can get half that support for next season's home games, we'll have no problem winning the division.
It was especially nice to see John Cornforth at Wembley supporting the Jacks, good to see that he still has Jack blood running through him. A rousing chorus of "Super Johnny Cornforth" was sung to him (probably much to his embarrassment.)
I stayed in London that night and met a few Northampton fans in a club. Little consolation I know, but they admitted that our singing and support put them to shame and felt that if the game had gone to extra-time (ie, if decent refereeing had a part to play in the game) we would have won.
Can't wait for August, just do our best to get more support at the games.
I've taken the time to review the John Frain Goal and I thought I'd take a few moments to set out the situation as I see it.
Attempt 1
There is no arguement about the foul or the position of the ball placement. The wall is reluctantly moved back the require distance. Frain runs forward to shoot and, at the same time a Swansea defender moves forward from the wall encroaching to within 10 yards. The intention was clearly to deliberately close down the angle and block the shot which is not allowed. The wall must not encroach until the ball is kicked. Frain, immediately appeals to the ref. who was already in the process of blowing up for the kick to be retaken. The defender was (I thought rightly) booked for "Ungentlemanly Conduct".
I seem to recall a similar instance in the World Cup once when Brazil were awarded a free kick slightly to the right of the Frain spot. As the Brazilian ran forward, a defender (Zaire?) broke from the wall towards the ball. The Brazilian, in this stance, stopped, the defender continued and booted the ball away and was sent off. If Frain had stopped his run in I would suspect a similar course of events.
Attempt 2
Apart from the arguement about whether the kick should have been retaken, most of the moaning is about the fact that the referee moved the ball to another spot after the wall had lined up.
As I see it, the ball was originally placed incorrectly and was then moved left to the correct spot before the kick was taken. If those of you with a video can check the two ball placements in relation to the "D" I hope you can confirm this.
As the ball is moved the wall suffles a foot or so to the right and then remains stationary. Frain shoots and two Cobblers defenders break from the left hand side of the wall, leaving a gap through which he scores.
The whole point is that the ball went through the LEFT of the wall and the replacement of the ball in actual fact was more to Frain's disadvantage than the defenders. If he had scored on the right then I could understand the moans as the arguement would be that the wall had not been able to move a sufficient distance but this is clearly not the case.
A further point, which no-one as far as I am aware has even mentioned relates to the first half instance when the Parrish shot was cleared as it headed towards the goal. As the ball is cleared a second defender clearly passes back to the keeper who picks the ball up! We should have be awarded an indirect kick right on the edge of the 6 yard box which would have given us an excellent opportunity of scoring.
As a further point of interest, the analysis of the match, shows the Cobblers with 5 shots on target and 8 off with Swansea mustering 2 on target and 7 off - which in itself tells a story.
I have just had a quick read of the supporters views on the match and thought you might like to here it from the cobblers perspective. (or possibly not).
Generally, Swansea took the game to the cobblers and played the better football, we all recognise that.
Wembley is strange as you can never hear the other supporters however loud they are singing. Where I was I couldnt hear the swansea supporters at any point before, during or after the game. Shame as we all like to hear the welsh sing their national anthem with a bit of passion. Even though we never heard ours being played. I think its just the acoustics as from our end there was lots of singing and noise being made but I dont think the sound travels much there.
The so called bad decission by the ref was rather a good call as the swansea players in the wall were about 5 yards from the ball by the time it was actually kicked.
On the following monday about 40,000 people turned out in the town centre to welcome the lads back. I imagine they will have to buy a trophy cabinet now as I doubt they have had much need for one in the last 30 years.
No doubt we will meet swansea again soon, unless we swap leagues at the end of next season.
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