FAN FOCUS: Sion Clyant

We continue our weekly fans feature as we put our loyal supporters under the spotlight!
Fan Focus gives every member of the Jack Army a chance to share their favourite tales, games and goals from supporting the Swans over the years.
If you want to be involved in the feature, email jackwells@swanseacityfc.co.uk

Name: Sion Clyant
Age: 22
From: Morriston

How long have you been supporting the Swans?
I've been supporting the Swans ever since I started watching football. I got my first season ticket about 11 years ago (the season prior to the final campaign at the Vetch).

What was your first Swans game?
Swansea against Huddersfield in the Autoglass Trophy final when I was just over the age of one. Wembley isn't a bad place to watch your first game, even if I can't remember any of it!



Why did you start supporting the Swans?
My dad is a big Swansea fan, and he used to take me down the Vetch. Since I've been supporting the Swans properly I've seen three promotions, four cup wins, watched us in Europe, move into a new stadium and narrowly avoid relegation from the Football League. People could be supporting another football club and not see anything like that in their entire life time, so I would say that I'm very lucky.

What is your most memorable Swans moment?
Without mentioning an obvious answer that has been mentioned above, I would probably say a game we played against Macclesfield in our final year at the Vetch. At the time, it was a top-of-the-table clash, with Macclesfield in-form and Swansea out of form. The game was played on a Friday night and the atmosphere was buzzing. Lee Trundle played one of his best games for Swansea (even though he didn't score) and pulled out all of his best skills. We won the game 2-0 and the Vetch was bouncing.

Best game you've seen at the Vetch/Liberty?
Probably the play-off game against Nottingham Forest - from a Swansea perspective, the match had everything! A left foot curling effort from outside the box by Leon Britton, Steven Dobbie dribbling past three Forest players then nutmegging another before slotting it into the bottom right hand corner, and even an ex-Cardiff player scoring against us in Robert Earnshaw. Obviously tension was high going into the final few minutes with a whole season and all our hard work looking like it was going to get undone until...



Best goal you've seen at the Vetch/Liberty?
Darren Pratley against Forest. As mentioned above, we were under the cosh for the entire second half with pressure building and building, and as a Swansea fan you think that it would be typical for us to throw a 2-0 lead away in the biggest game since Hull, so a goal from anywhere would have removed pressure from the 2-1 score-line. But to score from our own half was incredible. Huge goal, huge game, huge win... and the rest is history!

Your greatest sacrifice to watch the Swans?
Probably my education - twice I've put important exams on the line to watch the Swans.
First time this happened was a week before a Welsh exam, and we had a mock which basically told us a lot of the answers for the GCSE exam we were going to sit the week after, but I chose to go to Carlisle away instead. We left at 7am on the bus and returned at 5am the next morning!
The second time was during an exam period at my university, where I study Electrical and Electronic engineering. Swansea were playing Malmo in our first European away game for about 20 years and, not wanting to miss out on this occasion, I risked not passing the year to go to the Swedbank Stadio. On the Wednesday I sat one exam, on the Thursday I was in Sweden and by the Friday I was back in Sheffield (where I go to uni) starting revising for the exam I had coming up on the following Monday. I'm proud to say I passed both exams.
But, just as a side note, both of these games ended 0-0!

Who is your favourite Swans player of all time, and why?
Ferrie Bodde. He scored regularly from distance, and I was behind the goal when he scored that goal at Preston. He also could ping a pass to anyone and was also a hard man in the middle of the pitch. With the influx of Dutch internationals that have played for Swansea, there is no doubt in my mind that if he hadn't got injured against Birmingham he would have had at least 20 caps for Holland.



Favourite current player?
Modou Barrow - because he's Wheely fast (like a wheel barrow). I'd also say Leon Britton - he's a legend.

Favourite Swans kit from over the years?
The black and grey striped away kit from our promotion season from the Championship. If I remember correctly, we never won with the kit on and there were huge fears that we would wear it for the Forest away game as well as the match at Wembley, but in both we wore the home kit. It was stylish and looked interesting, even though people would class the colours as dull.

If you could sign one player for the club, who would it be?
Son Heung-min, let the Korean influx begin!

Your most disappointing moment watching the club?
The football we played under Paulo Sousa didn't fill me with excitement. Also, losing on penalties to Barnsley in the 2006 League One play-off final.