Connor Roberts: Swansea City defender pleased with return of fans
- Published
Connor Roberts was in the Swansea City squad that suffered relegation from the Premier League in 2018
Swansea defender Connor Roberts has welcomed the return of fans as his side bid for promotion to the Premier League.
The Welsh Government has given the go-ahead for Swansea to welcome back fans for the Championship play-offs.
The Swans will host supporters for their semi-final home leg against Barnsley on 22 May.
"It's been a long time coming," Roberts told Elis James' Feast of Football podcast.
"It will be nice for all my mates and the fans that support me and the team.
"It's a little bit more normalisation. It's obviously not going to be exactly the same as it was.
"You can't underestimate how up for it the fans will be"
"But it should be good and hopefully we can make them smile and they can go away happy and obviously that would mean a positive outcome over the two legs."
Swansea and fellow Welsh club Newport County's EFL play-off games are part of a series of test events, the plans for which were announced by First Minister Mark Drakeford last month.
The games will mark the first time supporters have been able to return to stadiums in Wales since coronavirus restrictions began in March 2020.
A list of nine pilots have now been confirmed, including Wales' football friendly against Albania at Cardiff City Stadium on 5 June which will be set to welcome 4,000 supporters.
That game will be Wales' final game before this summer's European Championship and Roberts will be hoping that he will be linking up with the national side having achieved promotion with the Swans.
Steve Cooper's side are away to Barnsley, a side they've beaten twice this season, in the semi-final first leg on Monday night with the winners facing Brentford or Bournemouth in the final.
"We go there and give everything we can and hopefully it's good enough and hopefully we get a good result," Roberts added.
"It's a big opportunity for us. The two games this season were very different to what Monday night is going to be.
"It wasn't pretty as every fan under the sun will admit but hopefully we can play some nice stuff and create some opportunities for ourselves.
"A positive result is the aim."