Swansea City FC

Like all fairytales, the Swans’ Championship play-off final triumph over Reading had a twist that even local girl, Swans fan and Hollywood actress Catherine Zeta Jones would have enjoyed.

Swansea, leading 3-0 at the interval, survived Reading’s stirring revival as the Royals came back with two goals inside eight second-half minutes.

But Scott Sinclair’s third - a second composed penalty - confirmed a 4-2 triumph and Swansea’s ticket to the millionaire’s playground of the Premier League with its estimated £90m jackpot for the new boys.

“Eight years ago the club won the last game of the season against Hull to stay in the Football League,” said Swans manager Brendan Rodgers.

“And Swansea won that game 4-2 and one player scored a hat-trick that included two penalties. So it is absolutely ironic that to become the first Welsh team to go into the Premier League that someone got a hat-trick with penalties and we won 4-2. The footballing gods were with us.”

But there is nothing divine about the reasons why Wales’ second city still has a football club to call its own - Swansea City survived by virtue of the sheer commitment, courage and diligence of a bunch of proud Jacks.

And it is perhaps fitting that Swansea completed their rise from bottom to top division inside six years with such joie de vivre just two days after the club they model themselves on had dished out yet another football lesson on the very same Wembley turf.

Swansea watched Barcelona demolish Manchester United in the Champions League before the team nicknamed ‘Swansalona’ strutted into the Premier League.

“This club is clever in that they understand the type of manager they want,” added Rodgers. ICWS students can now look forward to watching Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Manchester City, to name but a few of the giants of English football who will be playing at the Liberty Stadium next season, bring it on !!

» Download the Swans 2011/2012 fixtures list here...