Now that I've moved from an occasional North Bank Natter, to a slightly more regular column, a little bit about myself.

I hit the magical 50 this year. I am an ex Ystalyfera boy and left there in the early sixties to spend 2 years in Dundee. Since then I have lived in Coventry, so a vast majority of Swans games have been away. The last fifteen years have seen me being accompanied by, first one son Gareth, and then a second son David.

Apart from a holiday job, my working life has been spent in the car industry working for the numerous names that Rover/Land Rover have had. So, as with my employment through all the troubled times, my support for the Swans has equally lasted. Well that's enough of me.

Who Knows?

Twelve months ago, we were starting our run in to the end of the season that many of us thought was going to end with a place in the Conference. Luckily that didn’t happen, and we are still a league club. What if it had happened, would it have been as bad as we all thought?

Pundits have said that there is not that much difference between Division 3 and the Conference, as more clubs are now full time. I question that, as by looking at the Conference the top six clubs are all ex league and even Accrington Stanley in 9th place were in the league many years ago. Halifax and Scarborough are the only 2 that are not pushing for an end of season play-off place. With Scarborough ready for a half million windfall from their cup game against Chelsea even they could make a late bid for promotion.

If we were now in the Conference would we be battling against a mini league of 8 teams to regain our league position, instead of the 12 or 13 we are battling against now?

With all bar a few of our players out of contract at the end of last season, we wouldn’t know what players would have made up our squad. What can be taken for granted is that we wouldn’t have had the likes of Martinez, Britton & Trundle. In fact I would say none of the players that were brought in would have signed. So our squad would have been made up of our youngsters and maybe a few old heads that were out of contract and released at other clubs. This means that we would have not seen the four or five exceptional games early on in the season, but of late would the standard have been any different? I would guess that we would have had a squad that would have been equal to anything the Conference has to offer and would now be looking for a return to the third.

Another thing we wouldn’t have had is an average crowd of 7,500. What would we have had maybe 3,500 – 4,000 depending on early success? Both Shrewsbury and Exeter who lost their league places last season seem to have kept their support base. Over Christmas Shrewsbury had 6,000 gates, admittedly they were local derbies against Telford & Hereford, but the fans have in the main stayed loyal.

Of the teams that have come up from the Conference Kidderminster, Boston, Macclesfield and Cheltenham are struggling, Wycombe after a bit of success look to be returning to the third and it’s only Rushden & Diamonds that at the moment making a go of it. This mainly due to being bankrolled which could be coming to an end. This backs up my thoughts that apart from the top 8 clubs in the Conference the rest would not have been a threat. Of the two teams that came up, Yeovil as a club were ready for the league. They have been a major force in non-league for a while. Like Lincoln, Doncaster, again an ex league club, used the time out of the league and re-grouped, strengthening in the summer and have taken most by surprise.

All this points that given the right players we would have only been out for one or two season at most. Would more of our young players been blooded, would Richard Duffy have had another season to develop before being spotted by Portsmouth?

Let’s look at the worst scenario. If we now go on to a mid table position with no chance of a play-off place, the crowds will go down. At the end of the season, we could well lose most of our better players and we have to start again. If at the end of the season we were on a high and returning to the league, would we be in the position of Doncaster and strengthening.

We have had the benefit of better crowds bringing in revenue, but again that revenue has been used to bring in loan players. We have had a cup run, which again will bring in revenue, so the club has benefited financially, but the run, good as it is, hasn’t been as exciting as the previous one.

A further question, would the White Rock have been given the go ahead if we had been relegated last season, I doubt it, more likely it would have been put on hold.

So the big question based on if’s and but’s, and the fact that none of us wanted to go out of the league

At the end of the season, if we don’t go up, and for arguments say, that we were returning from the Conference, which would be the stronger position for the club to be in?