The Liberty Stadium: Swansea City 1-3 Leicester City

Swansea City 1-3 Leicester City

I (Adrian) decided as I hadn’t been to what is now known as the Swansea.com stadium for 13 years, I would go on a supporters coach. In hindsight I wish I hadn’t as I embarked on a trip from Leicester that should be about 3 and half hours which eventually took 7 and a half hours, meaning two coach load of fans missed the first 35 minutes of the match. The best way to get to Swansea and west Wales from the Midlands is down the M5 coming off for the M50 and then the now completed A465 known as the Heads of Valleys Road. It’s been a long project but is now complete and brings you out on the M4 near Swansea. Instead we headed down to the outskirts of Bristol crossed the Severn estuary via the Severn Bridge and then travelled west on the M4. Unfortunately, what became apparent was the fact that the M4 was closed near Porthcawl due to high winds and diversions via a village called Pyle caused chaos. Added to that due to the time the coach driver had to take an enforced break of 45 mins which meant we had two coach load of fans standing around a layby on a gridlocked duel carriageway. When Jordan James opened the scoring for Leicester with a spectacular right foot shot in 7 minutes we were still travelling past Port Talbot. We arrived with 35 minutes gone with Leicester leading. The last 10 mins of the first half saw the ball being given away by both sides and Leicester forced to defend in numbers. The second half saw both sides have excellent opportunities to score, James hit the inside of the post with a left foot shot, while the Swans were unlucky not to equalise when Zen Vitpotnik brought out a good save from Stolarczyk. Substitutes then started to be introduced with Alan Sheehan the Swansea boss the first to make changes and from his point of view it had an immediate effect as his side won a penalty. A rash challenge by Wout Faes on Ethan Galbraith in the box saw the referee point to the spot. Another substitute Adam Idah completed the work sending the Leicester keeper the wrong way for the equaliser and his first goal for the club. 1-1. You felt with the fans right behind them, Swansea City would really get stuck into the visitors but it didn’t happen, Leicester seemed to raise their game and retook the lead on 77 minutes with a typical Fatawu effort. Cutting in from the right and firing a left foot shot past Vigoureux. 1-2. It was almost 1-3 a few moments later when the goalscorer chipped the Swans keeper from 50 yards saw his effort cannon off the crossbar and in following up Daka’s header was turned over the bar by Vigoureux. Leicester were now looking the more composed side and increased their lead with 5 minutes remaining. Swansea failed to clear a Luke Thomas free kick and as the ball ricocheted into the air Vestergaard headed home the lose ball. Poor defending and just maybe the keeper could have done better. 1-3. The visitors should have scored a 4th, substitute Carranza through on goal hesitated and Vigoureux saved his shot and the follow up was deflected for a corner. The second half was probably Leicester’s best performance of the season so far, maybe they were assisted by Swansea’s desire to attack in front of their home fans but in the end a deserved win for Leicester City. The coach journey home was uneventful. We travelled across the valleys on the A465 and I was back in Leicester at 8.30pm. A strange day delighted with the City win and second half performance but it all feels a bit hollow due to the fiasco of the journey.

Swansea City 2-1 Wigan Athletic
During the Tuesday before this fixture, Adrian and I visited the Nottingham Playhouse theatre where we saw a
performance called ‘The Diary of a Footballing Nobody’ based on Dave McVay's book which was featured his memoirs during his time at Notts County and his
antics whilst being a 1970's footballer.
Onto the game, we were fortunate enough to get tickets to see Swansea City in the Premiership simply due to the near enough sell out crowds every game at the Liberty Stadium due to its low numbered capacity.
We set off early, down the fog covered M42 and then towards Worcestershire CCC's New Road cricket ground which was
also submerged in fog making it difficult to see across the crease. New Road is a quirky cricket ground with the old parts of the ground starting to be replaced with new stands and therefore bringing the ground into the 21st Century. New Road also famously flooded in July 2007 when the River Severn burst its banks and flooded Worcester.
Following our stop in Worcester, we went to a much sunnier Hereford United's Edgar Street.
Edgar Street is very much an aging old
fashion football ground which is in dire need of development. Sadly with the current finances of the club and the loss of their Football League status means that any ground developments are currently unlikely.
After our half way stop in Hereford, we continued towards Abertawe (Swansea) and over the Welsh border.
We then arrived in Swansea where we first drove past the Liberty Stadium and down towards the Vetch Field where Swansea City previous played which appears to have been converted into an allotment and preserving old turnstile openings and the centre circle.
We then went further to the waterfront where we visited St Helen's ground where Glamorgan CCC occasionally play as well as hosting Swansea Rugby Football Club matches by halving the pitch.
We then decided to make our way back up to the Liberty Stadium where we were forced to pay for parking on the retail park next to the ground which cost £6! - Who says the Premierships cheap following the release of the Prices of
Football Survey released this week!
Once we parked up, we made the short walk to the stadium on the otherside of the River Tawe.
We took some photos outside the ground as well as finding there to be a beauty salon at the stadiwm (stadium) seeming to be a bizarre location.
The Liberty Stadium was opened in 2005 and was to be home of both Swansea City and Ospreys. The ground holds 20,750
and is the third biggest stadium in Wales behind the Millennium Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium. The architects behind the Liberty Stadium were TTH Architects who also designed the Stadium of Light in Sunderland which appears
almost identical to the Liberty Stadium yet a lot smaller. Since its opening in 2005, Adrian didn’t recognise the stadium area from his previous visit in 2005 due to the development on land around the stadium which has now been turning to a retail park and housing by the river. The name ‘Liberty Stadium’ may seem to appear to be a very similar idea to Rotherham’s New York Stadium by linking the stadium name to New York City one way or another but it’s actually named after the owners of the stadium which are Liberty Properties PLC.
A very entertaining game by both teams saw Swansea City take all 3 points in a 2-1 win against Wigan Athletic. Goals scored in the Second Half by the two Swansea City Spaniards Pablo Hernandez and Miguel Michu to make it 2-0 before Wigan came back with a goal coming from Emmerson Boyce in front of a near enough sell out crowd of 19,696.
We left the ground promptly and got back to the car where we queued out of the retail park before taking a single track road towards Skewen and getting onto the A465 at Neath, joining the M50 at Ross-on-Wye and then M5 and M42 back to the East Midlands.
Adrian and I enjoyed our weather changing day from a foggy Worcestershire to an autumn sunshining day in Swansea
and really enjoyed the football being played by both Swansea City and Wigan Athletic who appear to pass the ball well.

The Liberty Stadium

Monday, 22 December 2025

Swansea City 1-3 Leicester City

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