40 years on, documentary charts Tosh’s astonishing achievement
THE stars came out for the 40th anniversary of Tosh taking Swansea City to the top.
The amazing achievement of John Toshack in taking Swansea City from the Fourth Division to the First was marked with the exclusive screening and premiere of a new documentary film.
The documentary, entitled Tosh, charts Swansea City’s incredible rise up the English Football League under manager John Toshack.
Alan Curtis, Wyndham Evans, Leighton James and Nigel Stevenson, all legends of that era, were joined by the likes of rugby legend Sir Gareth Edwards for an evening which included an exclusive Q&A session after the screening.
The documentary begins with Swansea’s then chairman Malcolm Struel tempting John Toshack, a Liverpool legend and one of the top players in the game at the time, to swap the old First Division (now the Premier League) and a European Cup-winning team for a club which had not long survived a vote to stay in the Football League. In 1978, Tosh joined as playermanager at the age of 29 and, incredibly, told the players he’d like to get the team into the top flight. Swansea City went on to earn three promotions in four years, helped by the likes of Ian Callaghan and Tommy Smith, who Tosh convinced to join from Liverpool. In the 1981-82 season the Swans even topped the league for a time before eventually finishing in their highestever position of sixth place, a record which still stands.
The film’s director, Pete Jones, said: “The idea of attracting a First Division player and Wales international, someone of John Toshack’s calibre, to the Vetch Field was just a fantasy. Especially as Tosh was Cardiff-born and bred.
“But somehow we got him and somehow he did exactly what he said he was going to do – take us all the way up to the First Division. As a kid on the terraces, it was Roy of the Rovers stuff.
“The late, great Bill Shankly, who
managed Tosh at Liverpool, called it a remarkable achievement and named Tosh as manager of the century.
“So to be able to tell this story, and meet the people who were involved, has long been a dream of mine and one I’ve really enjoyed realising.”
Swansea City chief executive Julian Winter said before the premiere: “We are so proud to host the first public screening of Tosh at the Swansea.com Stadium.
“As soon as we knew the film was in production, we wanted to get involved as a way of paying our own tribute to
John Toshack.
“There can be no better way of marking the 40th anniversary of the Swans in the top flight than telling the story right here at the club.”
Former Swansea City and Wales international Alan Curtis said: “What it meant to Swansea at the time, and what it still does now, is hard to overestimate.
“The city wasn’t in a great place back in those days and to have a football club rising up through the ranks, and with so many good local players involved as well, it gave people such a sense of pride. We were on the world stage!
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how the film came out. It was a pleasure to be a part of it and to relive some great memories.”
Tosh is a joint production between Eatsleep Media and Focus Shift Films, in partnership with Kaleidoscope Film Distribution.
After the premiere, the film now goes on limited release at cinemas up and down the country, including in Swansea, Liverpool, Chester and Cardiff.
Pre-orders for the DVD and Blu-ray are already available via Amazon.