Chairman's column: Brighton

Read Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins' programme notes for today's clash with Brighton.

Good afternoon and a warm welcome to everyone here at the Liberty Stadium for today’s Premier League game against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Today’s encounter is another chance for Paul and the players to get our season moving in the right direction following a strong performance at Arsenal last week.

In my view there were a lot of positives and lessons to learn from our narrow 2-1 defeat. But while we have a reasonable away record this season with five points from five games, it goes without saying that we must find a way to compete strongly at the Liberty.

I’ve talked this through with Paul and the squad this week and, for whatever reason, the players have come to enjoy playing away more than at the Liberty this season.

As a supporter there’s always a fine line in terms of what affects the atmosphere. Is it the crowd lifting the players or the players lifting the crowd?

Without doubt the way the players started the game against Huddersfield set the tone and the crowd, as always, responded. We must make sure that when we play at home we start with a strong, positive attitude on and off the field to create the right atmosphere to make it difficult for any opponent.

While we cannot ultimately control any result, we can control some major things on matchdays here at the Liberty. Paul and the players can focus on the level of performance and tempo we play, while us fans can hopefully create an atmosphere where the players feel invincible, driven on by the emotion and passion from the crowd.

I’m sure together we can achieve this and start to focus on the long season ahead with growing ambition.

A warm welcome to all directors, staff, players and supporters who have travelled to South West Wales today to support Brighton.

Brighton have made a solid start to the Premier League campaign under the leadership of Chris Hughton. There’s little doubt that Brighton as a club have achieved remarkable growth since the change in ownership in 2009 when Tony Bloom took full control. They built a fantastic stadium and with continued investment on the pitch gained promotion to the top flight last season.

Today’s game is followed by yet another international break. But when we resume in two weeks’ time at Burnley it is the start of the longest run of games without a break going into the new year.

Let’s hope we can all look forward to the remaining November and December fixtures with renewed confidence as we fully focus on the task ahead and meet head-on the challenge ahead.

Enjoy the game.

Huw