Swansea City’s visit here for our opening pre-season friendly on July 13 will bring back memories of the Welsh club’s only previous visit to The People’s Pension Stadium.
Not so long ago, Reds gave quite a few Premier League or Championship sides a bloody nose but the closest they came to toppling top-flight opposition came in 2012 when we were ten minutes away from knocking Swansea out of the League Cup.
Having beaten Championship clubs Millwall and Bolton in earlier rounds and going well in League One under Richie Barker, Reds approached the tie against Brian Laudrup’s side with plenty of confidence.
It looked like being a comfortable night for Swansea when Spanish midfielder Miguel Michu converted Wayne Routledge’s cross in the 27th minute.
But just before the break Josh Simpson drilled home the equaliser from 20 yards (pictured above celebrating with Nicky Adams) and early in the second half midfielder Hope Akpan produced calm finish to make it 2-1 past goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel (main picture).
Akpan nearly scored a third after a lung-bursting run from deep inside our own half and that proved to be a costly miss with Danny Graham equalising in the 74th minute.
It looked like the game was heading to extra time when Garry Monk – these days manager of Birmingham City – headed a late winner for the visitors.
