SWANSEA CITY FOOTBALL CLUB
Founded: 1912 | Nickname: The Swans | Ground: Liberty Stadium | Capacity: 20,532
Overview Swansea City will become the first ever Welsh side to play in the Barclays Premier League.
The Swans clinched promotion by beating Reading 4-2 in the Championship play-off final at Wembley.
Scott Sinclair scored a hat-trick which included two penalties with Stephen Dobbie getting the other goal. Noel Hunt and Matt Mills gave Reading hope with second-half strikes.
It was a sweet moment for manager Brendan Rodgers who had left the Berkshire club in December 2009 after a poor run of results.
And it was a just reward for his team who had finished third in the table, narrowly missing out on automatic promotion behind Queens Park Rangers and Norwich City.
Swansea were consistently in and around the play-off positions for most of the season, thanks largely to a strong home record.
They were beaten just three times at the Liberty Stadium, winning 15 of their 23 fixtures in front of their passionate fans.
Fired by 19 goals from midfield by Scott Sinclair, the Swans enjoyed a strong campaign.
While QPR always looked destined to take top spot, the race for the other automatic spot was much closer.
Swansea climbed to second in February on the back of four successive wins but by mid-April they had slipped back to fifth, behind Reading.
However they finished with a flourish winning their final three fixtures, scoring 10 times and conceding just once.
That was enough to secure third place on goal difference from neighbours Cardiff City and prompted dreams of an all-Welsh final at Wembley.
Swansea did their part drawing 0-0 with 10 men at Nottingham Forest before winning the return leg 3-1 but Cardiff were beaten 3-0 on aggregate by Reading.
That set-up an emotional reunion with the Royals for Rodgers who had the last laugh on his former employers.
Their Wembley triumph means Swansea will become the 45th different side to play in the Premier League.
Club Heritage It will be Swansea's first spell in the top division since 1983 when they dropped out of the old First Division.
Under manager John Toshack, the south Wales side had enjoyed a fairytale rise from the bottom division, winning promotion in three out of four campaigns between 1978 and 1981.
Their debut season at the highest level began with a remarkable 5-1 home win over Leeds United and included wins over Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Toshack's team topped the table on numerous occasions but they could not maintain the momentum and finished sixth.
Their subsequent demise proved as rapid as their climb. The following season saw them suffer the first of three relegations in four years as they returned to the fourth tier.
Beset by financial problems, they were wound up in December 1985 but were saved by local businessman Doug Sharpe.
By 1986 the Swans were back where they had started, just eight years after their first promotion under Toshack.
In 1988 they won promotion via the inaugural play-offs and spent eight years in the third tier before suffering relegation in 1996.
They climbed back in 2000 as Division Three champions but came straight back down.
Amid behind-the-scenes turmoil, the struggling Swans narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference on the final day of the 2002/03 season.
A year later they finished 10th before winning promotion the following season as they bade farewell to their old Vetch Field ground to move to the Liberty Stadium in the summer of 2005.
They lost the League One play-off final in 2006 but won the League One title in 2008 under the shrewd stewardship of Roberto Martinez who left for Wigan Athletic in the summer of 2009.
Under Paolo Souza they finished seventh, missing a play-off place on the final day of the 2009/10 season.
Souza's subsequent departure saw Rodgers installed and he made an immediate impact guiding the Swans into the Barclays Premier League at his first attempt.
Premier League History 2010/11 - Win promotion to the Barclays Premier League by beating Reading in the Championship play-off final.
