A Message from Matt Grimes

MATT GRIMES A MESSAGE FROM

Good afternoon and welcome to everyone joining us from around the world for this afternoon’s Championship fixture against Middlesbrough at the Swansea.com Stadium.

We drew 1-1 against Barnsley in our last game on home turf and felt the performance wasn’t what we had come to expect from ourselves from the prior three matches. We lacked the intensity but still dug deep and showed the determination to come back from being a goal down to get a point.

We were frustrated that we didn’t get all three points and it felt like we dropped two points but we’ll learn from it like we have from every game this season.

On a personal note, it was an absolute pleasure to make my 200th appearance for the club. I have loved every minute of it and I can’t wait to make more memories here. Next we faced a trip to Reading and were delighted with the performance in the first 65 minutes, playing our way against a team fighting for their lives towards the bottom of the table.

We responded to conceding so early on brilliantly and scored some lovely goals but we can’t concede in the manner we did.

We were disappointed because we lost control of the game and lost a three goal lead to come away with a point.

We were frustrated for the fans because they were unbelievable all afternoon and we would have loved nothing more than to get the win for them.

It meant we were seven unbeaten but we went there with the aim of getting three points and it was disappointing that we didn’t get them. It was another day of learning but we didn’t dwell on it as the mentality switched to this afternoon’s game as soon as we were back together on the training pitch.

Today we face Middlesbrough who are pushing for a spot in the play-offs, and we are fully aware of the challenge ahead and the threats they possess.

We know we will have to be on top of our game and approach the game with the right mindset, but hopefully we will put in a good performance and give the Jack Army something to cheer about.

Enjoy the game today!

Matt

CERI STONE A MESSAGE FR M

With four games remaining in a season of transition, the Swans Trust are now casting one eye towards an exciting year ahead.

We find ourselves in an interesting position today, as we welcome promotion-chasing Middlesbrough to the Swansea.com Stadium. With a game in hand on their rivals, Boro are only one win away from the playoffs, yet they are only four points ahead of us in the table and we are already planning for next season.

Who knows how we may have been thinking had we picked up maximum points against two of the bottom four, in Reading and Barnsley, in our last two games?

Those performances, like a few others this season, are ones we could look back on and realise we should have taken more out of the games. Where would we be now if we had the rub of the green on a couple of occasions?

Being realistic the play-offs are a step too far this season, so instead of looking back I choose to look forward and am genuinely excited at what next season will bring. The same applies to your Supporters’ Trust. Since the turn of the year our interactions with the club have increased and we now play a more structured role in the guidance of your club.

If you visit our amazing new website at http://www.swanstrust. co.uk you can stay abreast of all of our latest news and see some of the projects we are involved with: from working with the FSA to developing our own fan-led review, assisting with the Rivals on the Pitch initiative, to having a permanent seat on the club board.

Help with some of these programmes came from chatting with Trust members at our pod on a matchday. We have also been seeking further input from our members by sending out a series of questionnaires as part of an overall strategy review. The results of the review and a clearly defined direction for your Trust should be available in the summer months.

Looking ahead to the summer, if you would like to become more actively involved with the Supporters’ Trust and contribute towards to the next 21 years of shared ownership of our great club, you can do so by standing for a place on the Trust board. Elections take place every summer and we have positions available for re-election this year as members’ two year terms come to an end. If you feel you have the time and the energy, now is the moment to start considering how you could contribute to the running of your Trust. Could you come up with the next great initiative that brings the club closer to the fans? If so, the Trust may be the place for you.

We are delighted in recent months that two inspiring people sought greater engagement with us, in the form of Ceri Morgan and Diane Hughes, and they are now co-opted members of the Trust board. They have already made useful contributions.

Speaking of new additions, we are excited about the summer transfer window and how we will look at the beginning of next season. If we can keep the core of our current squad and have a full pre-season under our belts, then 2022/23 could be a season to remember.

We just need to finish this year strongly, starting with a win against Middlesbrough today.

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To celebrate EFL Week of Action, Swansea City is shining a spotlight on some of the fantastic work being done across the city by the Swansea City AFC Foundation.

The Foundation is at the very heart of the community, running projects around education, wellbeing and inclusivity.

This week, the club has chosen to focus on the 'We Wear the Same Shirt' project, which supports people with mental health struggles and helps combat loneliness via weekly walking football sessions.

The sessions take place every Thursday at Penlan Leisure Centre, while there are also sessions at Coleg Sir Gar in Llanelli on Wednesday evenings, and at Llandarcy Academy of Sport on a Friday afternoon.

Seventy-year-old Paul Colwill has been attending the Thursday sessions for three years after deciding he wanted to find a way to get active again.

“I had been stagnant in terms of fitness,” he explained.

“I’d been out for walks, but I really felt that I needed a bit more. I wanted to lose a bit of weight and get the muscles going again.

"I shopped around a little bit [for a way to get active], found this one and came up. “It caters for all abilities, it’s not all about skill and it was great to get back into playing football and lose a bit of weight.

“It’s been running three years now – obviously stopping for Covid – but it’s been great getting back into it and meeting back up with people.

"The boys here are great friends now. Getting exercise, playing football, it’s been a very good experience.”

As well as well as helping participants stay active through the five-a-side football activities, the sessions end with a social hour where people from the session can grab a coffee and have a chat.

With elderly people becoming increasingly isolated and mental health struggles linked to loneliness on the rise across the UK, particularly among the over 50s and people asked to shield during the Covid-19 pandemic, the 'We Wear the Same Shirt' project provides a community hub for people and helps combat the impact of isolation. “'We Wear the Same Shirt' works in partnership with the Football Association of Wales and is all about decreasing the stigma around mental health and getting anybody, no matter their background, into sport,” Swansea City AFC Foundation inclusion coach Dylan Williams explained.

“We hold a coffee session at the end of the football where the members can sit down, relax and talk to each other in a safe environment.

“It’s really important that they can socialise afterwards. During the session, they get all their physical activity, but at the end they can have conversations which might not be related to football.

“The benefits are obviously weight loss and physical fitness, but it’s the friendships you build up as well. Playing with the guys, and then the cups of coffee afterwards where we laugh and are just relaxing. It’s good – it’s really good.”

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