Welcome to the Swansea City Supporters’ Trust’s page in the match day programme for the first Championship game of the 2019/20 season. The first game of the season is always an exciting occasion for all football fans, full of hope and optimism for what the next nine months might bring. Let’s hope our hope and optimism is still intact at around 4.55pm this afternoon after victory over our opponents today, Hull City. As usual, we extend a warm welcome to Hull and their fans to the Liberty Stadium.

As I write this on Wednesday morning (so the situation may well have changed by the time you read it), the transfer window remains firmly open which always brings the possibility of further ins and outs at Swansea City. There are currently rumours around the future of last year’s top scorer, Oli McBurnie, who seems to be destined for Premier League newcomers, Sheffield United. While we understand that big money for any of our players will be hard to turn down, it will be important to replace the goals Oli brought last year. At this stage of the transfer window it’s likely to be difficult to do that adequately. We hope that the new manager, Steve Cooper, is given the best chance to do well though and continue the progress the club had started to make under his predecessor.

From a Trust perspective, the elections to the Trust board have recently taken place and the results were announced on Tuesday. Congratulations to Cath Dyer, Stuart McDonald (our Supporter Director), Sian Davies, Andy Godden and Andrew Cude who have all been re-elected to serve a further two year term on the Trust board. Also congratulations and welcome to Terry Sinnett, who has been elected to the Trust board for the first time. Welcome aboard, Terry! The Trust Board also welcomes our new board secretary, Mike Bastin, who has recently taken over from the legendary and now retired (from the Trust anyway) Nigel Hamer. Welcome aboard, Mike – thanks and good luck to Nigel.

The next couple of years are likely to be the busiest and possibly among the most significant in the history of the Trust so we would urge all Swans fans to join up to strengthen your Supporters’ Trust. The more members the Trust has, the stronger a voice for the fans it can be. Existing Trust members will have already received their packs to renew their membership for the 2019/20 season and we hope all will do so. For those who aren’t currently Trust members, we’d strongly urge you to consider joining and strengthening the Trust. You can easily join online at swanstrust.co.uk.

As usual, we’d like to end by reminding everyone that your Swans’ Trust representatives can be found at the pod outside the West Stand prior to today’s match and that you can keep up with all Trust news at www.swanstrust.co.uk or via our Twitter, Facebook or Instagram pages.