18/8/01. Swansea City 0 Oxford 0
After some nightmare encounters with Oxford last season, I could only expect the worse from this one but on the whole - despite the result - it was quite an eventfull day.

The day started off badly when the vehicle used by SS to drop me and 2 others into town started overheating within 4 minutes of us being on the road and by the time we had driven from Winch Wen to Town via Morriston the engine was hot enough to chargrill an elephant and the smoke pouring from under the bonnet had attracted Sioux indians from miles around.

We somehow made it to town by around 12.32pm and left SS by the Strand to deal with the smoking shed and walked over to the Cross Keys. A Guiness, a melon breezer and bud later we were on our way to the Gari for the first time since May.

Unsuprisingly little had changed since the last visit. The place was packed out with the typical cross section of society and despite the place serving one of the best pints in Swansea, people still chose to drink warm cans of Carling.After consuming enough alcohol to face the match I made my way to the N/B and reluctantly handed over enough beer money to get in.

Match reports aren't really my scene so I won't say too much about the game itself except that the result and performance were dissapointing. After bringing in new players from France, Argentina and York and the result last week, I expected us to beat bloody Oxford! It seems Hollins has lost the plot and mystified everyone by leaving the Argentian out of the team and persisting on keeping Romo on the field when it was clear to all that Vera Duckworth on Valium would have outshown him. The sooner we get new owners and replace the deadwood the better!

Fortunately for me, I missed most of the 2nd half queing up for a hot dog (well some long piece of meat with black, burnt onions) so only had to endure 11 minutes or so of Swansea and Oxford practicing their tackling in the centre of the field before the ref blew up and everyone left for the nearest pubs.

After a quick bottle in the Harry Griffiths bar and a bizzare incident where some unknown bloked quizzed me about the Arfon Haines Davies t-shirts, I made my way into town and continued the alcohol consumption in the Gate, Eli's, ICE bar, Hogshead and The Toad.

It was outside the ICE bar that I met ex Wales and Swansea player Leighton James who was having a drink there before going to a restaurant with his wife. Everyone has an opinion on Leighton James and he is probably as popular in Cardiff as Cyril the Swan but like him or loath him, you have to give the man credit for sticking to his principles and remembering his roots despite all his success. I can't see too many ex Wales internationals taking the time to talk openly and honestly at length with a group of ordinary fans like he did that's for sure!

After the ICE bar I had a few more in the Hogshead and then met Spock, SS etc in the Toad where we stayed listening to YMCA and various other shit and watched the hairdressers and valley boys do their thing until the pub shut.