Swansea City 4 Reading 2

A very sad day for me as this result means that I will not be called on to make a five hour round trip to watch Swansea next season! As I only cover games in the Championship and Leagues One and Two I must do without the pleasure of trying to stay awake on the M4 after a trip to the white part of South Wales.

Joking aside, I’m delighted for the Jacks as during my few trips there this season I was made very welcome and the football they play deserves to be seen on the main stage.

Swansea also have a stadium fit to grace the Premier League, although it will be interesting to see how they manage to juggle the use of it by the football club with the Swansea Ospreys (not Dragons as I inadvertantly called them befor this edit!) rugby union side - and whether the surface holds up if we suffer a bad winter.

It appeared to be okay this season though and, of course, the Championship teams have many more games to play. However, given that Swansea like to play attractive football on the deck, it would damage their survival chances if the pitch couldn’t cope.

But what happened with Reading yesterday?

The Royals appeared punch drunk after Scott Sinclair’s double within the space of one minute and then Stephen Dobbie’s third ten minutes before the break looked to have buried them.

The sending off of substitute Jay Tabb and assistant manager Nigel Gibbs as they abused the officials going down the Wembley tunnel at half time then appeared to compound what was looking to be a miserable day for the Berkshire outfit.

But whatever Brian McDermott said in the dressing room at the break worked. Reading came out and had Swansea o the back foot immediately. A Joe Allen own goal and a header from skipper Matt Mills had Swansea reeling as the Royals looked set to overturn the deficit and get themselves back into the Premier League.

But man of the match Sinclair stepped up to slot his second penalty of the afternoon in the 80th minute to ensure Swansea would be the first Welsh side to be represented in the Premier League and keep my petrol costs down to a reasonable level next season. Well done lads – and thanks for saving me the fuel costs!