TOP-FLIGHT JACKS: Colin Pascoe

We continue our focus on players who featured for Swansea City during the club's previous foray into the top flight of English football.
Here, we reflect on the career of former Swans midfielder Colin Pascoe.

COLIN PASCOE
Date of birth: April 9, 1965
Appearances/goals for the Swans: 342 apps; 73 goals.
Former clubs: Swansea City (1983-1988); Sunderland (1988-1993); Swansea City (1992-1993 - loan); Swansea City (1993-1996); Blackpool (1996).
Memorable moment: Pascoe starred in Swansea's Autoglass Trophy win at Wembley in 1994.

Port Talbot-born Colin Pascoe was a schoolboy player with Afan Nedd before signing professional with the Swans in April 1983.
During his formative years, he won Welsh youth honours, leading to a first appearance for the Wales Under-21s side.
His early years with the Swans saw him deployed on the left wing before he was later played as a midfielder or a striker. Pascoe became the latest in a long line of local players at the club that were small in stature but possessed quick feet, good balance and superb vision when on the ball.
Pascoe made his first-team debut as a substitute, coming on at the Vetch Field against Brighton and Hove Albion in March 1983. Unfortunately for Pascoe, at the time of his breakthrough, the Swans were in decline, with their relegation from the First Division confirmed following defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford - just weeks after Pascoe's debut.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Welsh midfielder, who, in his first season as a first-team player won a Welsh Cup winners medal, playing in both legs of the victory over Wrexham.
The following campaign saw Pascoe make the first of his two senior Welsh international appearances while at the Vetch Field, playing away against Norway then against Israel. He finished as joint-top goalscorer in the 1984-85 season, which led to a number of top-flight clubs casting an envious eye over the young talent.
But six months later, Pascoe broke his leg at the Vetch Field in an FA Cup tie against Leyton Wingate, and his promising career was put on hold while he battled back to full fitness. His rehabilitation went well and, at the end of the 1986-87 season, he was included in the Fourth Division Team of the Season.
But, surprisingly, with the Swans pushing for promotion to the Third Division the following season, Pascoe was sold to Sunderland for a fee of £70,000, with whom he won promotion from the Third Division in his first campaign.
After helping the Black Cats win back-to-back promotions, Pascoe was back playing top-flight football a year later, with his on-field success helping him hold down a place in the Welsh national team.
After four seasons away, Pascoe returned to the Vetch Field on loan in 1992-93 before making the move permanent the following season. He starred for the Swans at Wembley as they beat Huddersfield Town in the 1994 Autoglass Trophy final but ankle problems were beginning to catch up with the player.
In February 1996, having netted 54 goals in 270 league appearances overall, Pascoe left Swansea City to finish his playing career in the Welsh League with Merthyr Tydfil following a brief spell at Blackpool.
Upon hanging up his boots, in 1998 he took up a position as youth team coach for Cardiff City before becoming a part of the Swans' coaching staff in 2005. When then-manager Brendan Rodgers left the Liberty to become manager of Liverpool in 2012, Pascoe followed the Ulsterman to Anfield to take up the position of assistant manager.