Interview with Jamie Paterson

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Croeso ’nôl i Stadiwm Swansea. com ar ôl y ffenest ryngwladol Llongyfarchiadau i dîm Rob Page ar gyrraedd y gemau ail gyfle yn eu hymgyrch i gymhwyso ar gyfer Cwpan y Byd yn Qatar y flwyddyn nesaf. Roedd hi’n braf gweld y cyn-Elyrch Ben Davies a Connor Roberts yn sgorio yn erbyn Belarws, Dan James yn creu gôl Kieffer Moore yn y gêm gyfartal hollbwysig yn erbyn Gwlad Belg, a Joe Allen a Joe Rodon yn gweithio’n ddiflino yn amddiffynnol.

Llongyfarchiadau hefyd i Dan Williams ar ei gôl gyntaf i dîm dan 21 Cymru yn y fuddugoliaeth swmpus o 7-0 yn erbyn Gibraltar, gyda Brandon Cooper yn gapten a Lewis Webb a Ben Margetson hefyd yn y garfan. A hefyd i Seb Dabrowski a Ben Lloyd yn nhîm dan 17 Cymru gurodd yr Wcráin o 3-0, colli o 2-0 yn erbyn Portiwgal a chael gêm gyfartal 1-1 yn erbyn Kazakhstan.

Mae’n braf cael bod yn ôl yn y stadiwm am y tro cyntaf ers y fuddugoliaeth o 3-0 dros Peterborough ar Hydref 30, a bydd yr Elyrch yn gobeithio adeiladu ar eu canlyniadau arbennig gartref, gyda phedair buddugoliaeth o’r bron – yn erbyn Huddersfield, Caerdydd, West Brom a Peterborough. Dydy tîm Russell Martin ddim wedi colli yma ers mis Awst, ac fe fyddan nhw’n codi uwchlaw Blackpool ac yn nes at y safleoedd ail gyfle gyda thriphwynt y prynhawn yma.

Roedd y perfformiad yn erbyn Bournemouth wrth golli o 4-0 dipyn gwell nag y byddai’r sgôr yn ei awgrymu. A rhaid cofio eu bod nhw ar frig y Bencampwriaeth ar ôl colli unwaith yn unig y tymor hwn. Bydd angen i’r Elyrch anghofio am y siom wrth wynebu tîm Blackpool heddiw sydd wedi ennill tair o’u pum gêm diwethaf.

Does gan yr Elyrch ddim record dda iawn yn erbyn Blackpool dros y blynyddoedd diwethaf. Dydyn nhw ddim wedi ennill yn eu saith gêm diwethaf, gyda’r fuddugoliaeth ddiwethaf yn 2005 pan enillon nhw o 3-2, gyda Lee Trundle, Leon Britton ac Adebayo Akinfenwa yn sgorio. Ers hynny, maen nhw wedi colli pedair a chael tair gêm gyfartal.

Mae sawl chwaraewr wedi gwisgo’r ddau grys ar hyd y blynyddoedd. Yn eu plith mae Jonjo Shelvey, y chwaraewr canol cae chwaraeodd ddeg gêm ar fenthyg yn Blackpool o Lerpwl cyn treulio tair blynedd yn Stadiwm Liberty. Ar ôl i’r Elyrch ennill dyrchafiad i’r Uwch Gynghrair ddegawd yn ôl, symudodd Stephen Dobbie ar fenthyg i Blackpool, tra bod Andrea Orlandi yn un arall sydd wedi chwarae i’r ddau glwb – i’r Elyrch rhwng 2007 a 2012 ac i Blackpool yn 2014-15. Chwaraeodd Danny Graham ar fenthyg i Blackpool yn 2006 ac fe dreuliodd e ddwy flynedd gyda’r Elyrch ar ddechrau’r cyfnod yn yr Uwch Gynghrair. Flynyddoedd cyn hynny, treuliodd Tommy Hutchinson bedair blynedd gyda Blackpool (1968-72) a chwe blynedd gyda’r Elyrch (1985-91).

Mae gan yr Elyrch chwe gêm rhwng nawr a dechrau cyfnod y Nadolig, a thair ohonyn nhw gartref. Mae’n gyfle gwych i adeiladu ar y canlyniadau hyd yn hyn wrth edrych tuag at ddechrau’r ffenest drosglwyddo ym mis Ionawr. Ond un gêm ar y tro yw’r neges o hyd, a byddai’r triphwynt y prynhawn yma’n ddechrau gwych.

JAMIE PATERSON HAS HAD A GLITTERING START TO LIFE IN SA1 AFTER JOINING SWANSEA CITY AS A FREE AGENT JUST DAYS BEFORE THE START OF THE 2021-22 CAMPAIGN, AND HAS SIX CHAMPIONSHIP GOALS AND FOUR ASSISTS TO HIS NAME SO FAR THIS SEASON. HERE, HE DISCUSSES A DIFFICULT SUMMER BEFORE JOINING THE SWANS, HOW HIS MUM HAS BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA SENSATION, HIS ASPIRATIONS OF PLAYING INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL AND HIS CAREER TO DATE.

You’ve had a hugely successful season at the Swans so far, could you have ever imagined this back in the summer after you’d been released by Bristol City and almost started this season without a club?

It seems like a lifetime ago now but obviously it was difficult. I left Bristol injured after being there for five years and it was difficult to take at the time. I did think positive but, being injured as well, I just didn’t really know where I was going to be. Even if I was fit enough, clubs were thinking that I wasn’t fit. I just needed somebody to take a chance and see what I’d bring once I was fully fit, and that’s what Swansea did. I’d like to think so far I’ve repaid that faith.

Your season could have panned out differently had you not got injured on your first day at Middlesbrough, can you talk us through that trial?

I remember I hadn’t trained properly for months, I did a few private sessions in the gym but I still felt a sore groin and things like that.

I went down to Plymouth to meet Middlesbrough on a pre-season tour and the first session was on a random pitch that was quite bobbly and a bit uneven. I just turned and went down a bit of a ditch and felt my ankle roll, and it was just 30 seconds into the first training session I had had in about four months.

I felt something go but I carried on and then it just went swollen and black. I couldn’t kick a ball and later found out that I’d actually done a ligament straining my ankle. I tried to play for a couple of games and trained just trying to get through it, I didn’t really know what else I could do. I was unfit anyway and I’d just recovered from COVID as well, so I couldn’t train for two or three weeks before I even went to Middlesbrough.

It was a bit of a nightmare situation really, but it was the best thing I could have done to just get in and do something, so when the next opportunity came I was a little bit better fitness wise with my lungs etc. It was a bit of a tough one.

When did you first hear about the interest from Swansea? Do you think Korey Smith played a part in getting you to the Swans?

I spoke to Korey and I think the gaffer spoke to Korey a little bit as well. It happened quite quickly, as soon as the gaffer came in it was like the next day. I did hear of the interest from Swansea, I was linked here in the windows beforehand. It was always one that interested me just because of the way the club played football and the way they are, I’ve always admired the club from afar.

When I heard about the opportunity, I was going to do whatever it took to sort it out. When I came here I’d already played a couple of games and done some training at Middlesbrough even though I’d had the ankle issue. It was the next day I signed and I played on the Saturday and scored so it just went from there.

Was it easier making the move to Swansea knowing that Korey was here?

We played with each other for five years and we’re really good friends anyway, he’s like my annoying brother really, he just annoys me every day but I love him!

He played a big part in getting me here because I spoke to him a lot about the place and I know he was talking to the gaffer and Luke (Williams) about it as well.

I think Korey had quite a big part to play in it and it doesn’t usually happen like that, but it just seemed to happen because of the connection and thankfully I’m here now.

After such a difficult summer, you weren’t fully fit when you joined the club and couldn’t train some days. Were the staff patient with you while you worked to get back to full fitness?

The staff have been nothing short of amazing for me, because that’s exactly what I needed and not many clubs would give you that opportunity to maybe have a day off here and there. That could have possibly overloaded me and I could have done my other ankle or aggravated my other injury from before.

Sometimes in football someone just needs that little bit of love and care at the start and you owe them and have to repay them. I knew Luke as well so he knew the situation and there is a very transparent physio and coaching team here, it was just a case of some days when I first came in that I didn’t do as much as the others. There were a couple of others that were getting looked after in the same way too because of the COVID situation. Obviously now it’s different and I train every day and I’m fully fit. I needed that adjustment period and I was performing on the pitch as well, so it makes it a lot easier then to justify why you’re having a rest one day here and there.

You’ve previously said that you’d always wanted to play in a footballing side. Do you think this system and this team gets the best out of you as a player?

Yeah. I’ve played in footballing sides don’t get me wrong. The one closest to this was probably under David Wagner at Huddersfield, it was total football with the energy and pressing and that’s my game. I played probably one of my best seasons when I was at Huddersfield on loan.

I always knew that it’s not that easy to just select a team and say “I want to play for them.” It’s difficult and there aren’t many teams that play total football like we do. I’ve always thought in the back of my mind what my best position is, which I think is the eight and the 10 role that I play in now.

I’ve always thought that in the past so to be able to come to Swansea, play in my position and play the football that we play is amazing, I’m loving it.

Your mum seems to be becoming a huge Swans fan and social media celebrity in her own right and was having pictures with fans at Coventry away. She seems to be loving your time at Swansea as much as you are!

She doesn’t even know what she’s doing most of the time! She’s been tweeting forever but no one has ever really clocked on to it until now. She put one particular picture up and I think that was the start of Wendy Paterson being famous on Twitter. She gets more likes, retweets and comments than me, I think she must have every Swansea fan liking her posts!

Your family have come to a lot of games and your nephew was even mascot, have your family always been a massive support?

My mum, for example, has obviously seen the situation I was in in the summer and I was back at my mum’s at that time for a couple of months to just get away from football, I didn’t want to be in Bristol on my own.

I’ve got three older brothers that support me, my dad, and my mum’s always there for me. She’s obviously proud of me as any mum is of their kid playing football. They’ve always supported me and especially this summer when I needed it, they always support me when I need it; that’s what families are there for and I’d do the same for them.

There were other things going on as well as I’d just split up from my long-term girlfriend and it was all in the same period, but that’s life it just happens like that. Thankfully I’ve come out the other side of that and my family are now happy and seeing me playing football again and I’m just enjoying playing football. It’s really that simple, put all the other nonsense to the side and I’m just playing football freely and enjoying it.

Is international football something you’d like to pursue?

The link to Wales is that my greatgran and great-grandad lived in Neath, and the situation is they went to visit a family member in Yorkshire and my great-gran gave birth while she was there, so my grandad was born in Yorkshire. He came back home and lived in Neath all his life and I’ve got loads of family members in Glamorgan and Neath although I don’t know them too much. That’s the Wales connection, my mum classes herself as partly Welsh.

On the other side, my grandad and my dad are from Scotland and my grandad was the most patriotic Scottish man ever, he’d have Scottish flags up in his house. It’s a weird one for me because when England are playing Scotland or Wales it’s a bit strange because I’d be proud to play for either.

My mum would be buzzing if I played for Wales and my dad would be over the moon if I played for Scotland, I’m just lucky to have that blessing of both.

Your career started with Walsall, but you came in to the first team at the age of 18. How did you find that?

I had Dean Smith as my youthteam manager and I did really well for him so he took me in to the first team because he became the firstteam manager.

He brought me with him at a time when I wasn’t really ready to be

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