Swansea City midfielder Sammy Wynne is set to fulfil a life-long dream by playing at the Swansea.com Stadium this weekend.
The 21-year-old has supported the Swans since her childhood and now has the chance to take to the hallowed turf for the first time as the club host Wrexham in the Genero Adran Premier on Sunday (KO 17:10).
“I’m so excited,” Wynne told Swansea City’s official channels. “It’s going to be a really surreal moment. I have flashbacks of sitting in the South Stand as a season ticket holder since I was kid, dreaming of playing on the pitch.
“I never thought it would happen, but the fact that it is going to happen is really exciting and I can’t wait!”
Wynne grew up as part of the Swansea academy set-up but departed for Bristol City at the age of 13, spending five years with the Robins before a switch to Oxford United.
After gaining experience in the English third tier, the chance arose for Wynne to return to her hometown club this summer and she signed a semi-professional contract in SA1.
The midfielder came off the bench to make her debut against Wrexham on the opening day of the season and then netted her first Swans goal a week later on her first start against Barry Town United. She has kept her place in the starting XI ever since.
Ahead of Sunday’s reverse fixture, the Swans sit third in the Genero Adran Premier table – three points behind Wrexham who are second.
“It’s a really important game,” Wynne said. “The game that we had up there was tough, but we did really well in the circumstances.
“They had a good atmosphere up there and I know that we will be able to do that when they come down here as well. We can try to make it difficult for them, playing at the stadium, hopefully that can work as our advantage.”
Following defeat to Cardiff City in the south Wales derby a fortnight ago, Swansea will be keen to make up ground on the league leaders while knowing that victory by two goals or more will take them second.
Both of their two matches at the Swansea.com Stadium last season attracted four-figure crowds and with great strides taken in the women’s set-up over the summer, they will be hopeful of beating their record 1,426 attendance achieved against Cardiff Met.
“I have played in a couple of big crowds before and you can really feel the energy that the noise can give you,” Wynne said. “So hopefully that can help us and give us that extra couple of percent that we might need.”
