September opened with the surprise capture of Andy Gurney from League One side Swindon Town. Speculation was rife as to the reasons for the move but Swindon's loss was to be Swansea's gain despite Gurney' less than clean disciplinary record.

It didn't start too well for another club defender though as Stuart Jones was sent off whilst on International duty with Wales Under-21s and the misery was compounded when a dubious penalty sent Swansea to defeat at Yeovil - Garry Monk being sent off in the process.

A bizarre opening goal sent Swansea on the way to a 3-0 win against Kidderminster at the Vetch leaving opposition manager Jan Molby unable to shake hands with Kenny Jackett after the game. Colin Pascoe returned to the Vetch in a coaching role as Richie Evans did more studying as the Swans won 1-0 away at then league leaders Wycombe.

It was a sad day for football as Brian Clough passed away but for the Swans the wins kept on coming as both Rushden and Luton were beaten at the Vetch and amidst an injury crises Watford striker Scott Fitzgerald arrived on loan.

The opening date for White Rock was confirmed as the weekend of 30th July 2005 as the seats started to go in at the new stadium as we showed you on the 24th September.

Swansea were piecing together a promotion push as October came around and a Lee Trundle penalty earned a point at Chester to stretch the unbeaten run to five.

Kris O'Leary was voted by the fans as the player of the month for the third division in September as Mansfield and their endless whingeing forced a change of referee for their game at the Vetch. It proved fruitless as a late Adrian Forbes goal sent the Swans to the top of the league with a 1-0 victory. 24 hours later there was despair as a gutless Wales performance saw them beaten by England at Old Trafford.

Southend were next for the Swans and their goalkeeper crisis was highlighted when they appeared to sign comedian Terry Alderton who had shone in Sky One's 'The Match' Alderton played no part in the end as the Swans crashed to a 4-2 defeat to end their little league run.

Normal service was resumed though with a 1-0 win over Leyton Orient which put the Swans back on the top of the pile although their chance to build on that lead was taken away when heavy rain caused the very late postponement of the Darlington fixture.

A new club shop and a 1-1 draw at Grimsby closed off the tenth month of the year with the Swans nicely poised to make a good challenge for success and a FA Cup tie at Cheltenham beckoned.

And at White Rock, the stadium was looking more and more impressive

The LDV run came to an end in early November as Wycombe won a dire match 1-0 but it was a twice taken penalty the day after Bonfire Night which was enough to send Bristol Rovers home empty handed from the Vetch.

John Smiths were rumoured to be in negotiations to sponsor the stadium, although one person said it could happen, another said it couldn't but we'd been down that road before with Neil Sharp earlier in the year.

The FA Cup started with an impressive 3-1 win away at Cheltenham before a farcical game at Shrewsbury saw Monk and Robinson sent off as the Swans were beaten 2-0. Monk eventually receiving a whopping 6 match ban for his red card - this all coming three days after Darlington had been beaten 2-1 at the Vetch.

John Toshack was confirmed as the new manager of Wales just before Kenny Jackett added the names of Ijah Anderson and Marc Goodfellow to his playing staff. Neither man thought was able to stop the side ending their winning home run as a much changed team lost 3-1 to Bury.

Former Swans keeper Roger Freestone left Newport County and with it retired from football after a great career.

Stills taken from the promotional DVD for White Rock gave fans a better idea of the final finished stadium

As Christmas approached, there were fresh concerns raised about the lack of goals coming from the squad and a 0-0 draw at Stockport in the FA Cup did nothing to alleviate those concerns.

Positively for the fans though there was the announcement of an unreserved seating area at the new stadium just before fans broke into the Vetch and stole some of the club's memorabilia. However, faith was restored when the same fans returned these days later together with some money for the repairs.

A Marc Goodfellow goal was enough to give the Swans a 1-0 win at Oxford before a flattering 1-0 reverse at Scunthorpe led many to predict that the side could not go up with the way they were playing.

Over half the limited edition box sets commemorating the Vetch had been sold by the halfway point in the month as more and more items were added to their content. And the Swans became the first club to provide a calendar for their fans where the players were completely naked.

Adrian Forbes was the subject of racist abuse at Oxford and the Swans earned a tie at Reading in the 3rd round of the FA Cup as Stockport were beaten 2-1 in the replay. The Swans went goal crazy before the month end. A 4-0 win over Notts County was followed up by a 5-1 win at Kidderminster on Boxing Day and a 3-1 win over Boston on Bank Holiday Tuesday. The Swans closed the year in 3rd place, seven points clear of the side in fourth and just four points off the league summit.

And with all 20,280 seats now in place in our new stadium, what a 12 months it has been?

And that, in many words was 2004 from a Swansea City perspective. Throughout the year JackArmy.net has been there to bring you the latest news, but more importantly the views of the fans as it happens.

It has been a record breaking year for the site - the busiest day ever was recorded on the day that Brian Flynn left and in total the site has recorded an incredible 14,000,000 plus page impressions during the course of the twelve months. Add to that an estimated 100,000+ message board posts and well over half a million visitors and you kind of get the general idea.

I would personally like to thank everyone who had contributed to the site and also those who just come in and have a peek to see what is happening. Without you the site is not what it is.

A Very Happy New Year is wished to each and every one of you reading this and let's keep our fingers crossed that 2005 is everything that you hope it will be.

Click Here For Our Review Of January - April

Click Here For Our Review Of May - August

Click Here For Our Review Of 2003

Click Here For Our Review of 2002

Click Here For An Alternative Review of 2001