http://www.swanseacity.com SWANSEA CITY v WEST BROMWICH ALBION
WORLD EVENTS
2001
APRIL 1 Slobodan
Milosevic, the
former president
of the Federal
Republic of
Yugoslavia,
surrenders to the
police to be tried
on suspicion
of abuse of
power and
corruption.
SEPTEMBER
11 Terrorists
hijack four
American
airliner jets;
crashing two
into the World
Trade Centre and one into the
Pentagon, while another crashes
into a field in Pittsburgh. Just
under 3,000 people were killed.
DECEMBER 15 Following a
decade of reconstruction, the
Leaning Tower of Pisa is
reopened to the public.2002
MARCH 30 Queen
Elizabeth The
Queen Mother,
one of the nation’s
most popular
royals, dies at the
Royal Lodge in
Windsor at the
age of 101.
JUNE 30 Brazil
defeat Germany
2-0 in
Yokohama,
Japan to win the
World Cup for a
fifth time.
OCTOBER 26
The Moscow
Theatre siege,
which saw 150 hostages killed,
finally ends when Russian forces
storm the building.club captain Nick Cusack within their
ranks, and, with the help of the
recently formed Supporters Trust
and former player Mel Nurse
jumping aboard, the next few
months saw the two parties fight for
the very soul of the club.
While all this was going on, the
Swans still needed to win games on
the field to remain in the Football
League. And the experience of
Addison and Nicholas instilled a
desire in the players who, despite
the off-field dramas, were
accumulating enough points to steer
clear of the relegation dogfight at the
bottom of the league. In fact,
although under threat of receiving
no wages, the players remained
focused on the task and went
undefeated during the festive period
to lie just below mid-table.
But while this was happening on the
pitch, the real drama was being
played off it. After months of
negotiations between Petty and
members of the Supporters Trust,
the former accepted that the game
was up and handed the club over to
a new consortium composed of loyal
Swans fans in Huw Jenkins, Leigh
Dineen, Martin Burgess, Brian
Katzen and David Morgan, as well as
Nurse to steady the ship.
The newly-formed board soon made
their presence known by making the
brave yet strange decision to
dismiss the managerial duo of
Addison and Nicholas in a bid to
reduce the debt, replacing them with
senior professionals Cusack and
Roger Freestone.
When the smoke cleared after one of
the most traumatic seasons in the
Swans’ history, Cusack was officially
appointed on a 12-month contract,
but a humiliating 7-1 defeat at
Hartlepool United within 24 hours of
him being unveiled showed that the
club’s struggles were still far from
over.MIKE LEWIS AND TONY PETTY
COLIN ADDISON