Jordon Garrick | My Favourite Game

In a new website feature, we speak to a member of the Swansea City squad about a special game from their career, and what made it so notable.

Here, we continue by reliving Jordon Garrick’s favourite match – his first-team debut at the Liberty.

Swansea City 3 Northampton Town 1

Carabao Cup: Liberty Stadium

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

That match will always mean a lot to me. I made my first-team debut, we won and got through to the next round.

I had an inkling that I was going to be involved. I was with the first team pretty much full-time and a lot of the younger players were training with them at that time.

I was actually a bit annoyed because I thought I had a chance of starting. I found out I wasn’t starting and I knew Andre Ayew was coming back, so I thought my chances of being involved were a bit iffy. But I just hoped for the best.

Even though I was on the bench, I couldn’t stop smiling. I had Tivonge Rushesha to the left of me, Jack Evans to the right and Andre was the other side of Jack.

I couldn’t believe I was there against Northampton in the cup and next to Andre, who had played in the Premier League. I thought: 'Wow! My life’s changed a little bit!'

We were losing 1-0 and I didn’t think the gaffer was going to bring me on.

I had a jog down the touchline to get ready for the warm down after the game. Suddenly, I heard my name called a couple of times, so I sprinted back down the touchline. 

My emotions were all over the place as I stripped off and got ready to come on. The gaffer told me to have fun, do my defensive work but, when I got the ball, to get at the full-back. 

It was just surreal. I was smiling and everyone was looking for me to make a difference.

I should have scored straightaway. It was weird; I was through on goal and everything flashed before me. In my head, I was thinking ‘I’m going to score; this could be the best debut ever!’

As I hit it, I turned away to celebrate thinking there was no way the keeper would save. But he dived down and saved it and I thought ‘maybe it’s not our day!’

Thankfully, I was wrong. I played well, we got the win and went through to the next round.

When I came on, I got the ball, nutmegged the left-back and everyone was cheering. With my family and friends there, I really wanted to make sure I showed everyone what I could do.

The gaffer told me afterwards that I had been in contention to start, but that he wanted to protect me with it been one of my first games back from injury. He told me it was the first of many games and that filled me with a lot of confidence. It was nice to hear a lot of positive things.

After coming off, I thought ‘if that’s what professional football is like, I can’t wait to play more'.