A glorious day saw me drive across to Swansea to meet my old friend Les to watch my beloved Blues play away in the Carabao Cup against Swansea City. We had been given hospitality tickets so had great seats on the halfway line (padded seats too!) at the Swanseacity Stadium.

The stadium has modern facilities and impressive views with a capacity of 21,088 having been opened in 2005, replacing Swansea’s previous ground, the Vetch Field. Swansea under manager, Vitor Matos, have signed striker Ross Stewart, from Southampton, Moussa Yeo from Red Bull Salzburg, Joseph Opoku from Zulte Waregem and Elijah Just from Motherwell.this represents a decent investment as the club push towards achieving promotion this season.

Birmingham City stuck with manager Chris Davies this summer, despite a frustrating mid table finish in 2025-26, and have added John Solis, after his loan spell last year, Dael Fry from Middlesbrough, Kristoffer Lund from Palermo and Luis Vazquez, from Anderlecht. Owner Tom Wagner is clear that this season should see a promotion push and this away fixture is the exact type of game that will need to be converted to secure three points, in contrast to last season.

The game opened with Birmingham City putting pressure onto the Swansea defence. Priske and Stansfield caused problems but Swansea too had their moments, with Moussa Yeo creating problems. Just as it looked as if the game would be deadlocked at the break, the Blues took the lead, when Carlos Vicente’s cross was finished at the near post, by August Priske, to send the Bluenose fans into rapture and to ensure at half time the score read, Swansea City 0 Birmingham City 1.

After the break a revived Swansea came back at the Blues and both sides had chances to score. Birmingham’s Klarer and Neumann defended solidly throughout. The game finally swung however on a wonder save by Blues’ keeper, James Beadle, who proved he was worth another season long loan from Brighton, with an incredible close range reaction to keep Ben Cabango’s shot away.

At the fulltime whistle it was the Blues who left with all three points. The away fans sang in praise of Priske and Beadle for today’s success. The Blues go into the second round of the cup they last won in 2011 against Arsenal. Swansea City will have learnt a lot from today’s performance and it was clear to the 11,283 fans in attendance today that both sides will be better versions of themselves than in the previous season.