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Revenge Not On The Monk Menu - Or Is It?

Garry Monk says that revenge is not at the front of his mind as he prepares to face Barnsley on Tuesday

The Swansea City captain will come face to face with Barnsley for the first time since that fateful day in May 2006 when a couple of missed penalties from the Swans sent Barnsley into the Championship.

But that is in the past according to the Swans captain who told Wales on Sunday “It hadn’t crossed my mind and that says a lot.

“Of course, there are a lot of bad memories from that day that still hurt – but the two teams have changed so much from that match I don’t think you can talk about revenge or grudge matches or anything like that.

“We’re in the Championship now anyway and I think the only way it would have mattered it we hadn’t progressed since that day.

“Yes, we missed an opportunity that day, but now we’re here and that’s what counts.

“If we were still stuck down there and we were playing Barnsley, then that might be different – but we’ve moved on for the better and the fact we’re only interested in three points and getting into the top six rather than revenge says it all.

“I don’t think you can say it’s turned out for the better or that it would have been too soon for us to have gone up back then because people were only saying at the start of this year we couldn’t compete in the Championship, but we’re doing it.

“Who knows what would have happened if we had won that day as we should have?

“Barnsley managed to stay up and have competed themselves so we don’t know.

“I still haven’t watched the game back, but you can’t completely forget about it.

“It doesn’t happen too often, but just random occasions it will pop into your head; like when lads are talking about different experiences and then it just flashes in and the disappointment all comes back.

“We’ve had all the hype of the derby, but that’s behind us and it’s good to able to put pressure on ourselves to win more games.

“We’ve dropped points to Birmingham and Coventry recently – and the fact we’re saying that shows how we want to do well in this league.”

Monk though is quoted in News of the World as saying "I'm after revenge.  I want to set the record straight.   The play off final is the worst memory of my career along with the knee injury that ruled me out for a year.

"That game is still in my mind it's something I can't ever let go.  The more I think about the play off final the more worked up I get about the Barnsley game.   First and foremost we want the three points but on a personal level I want to get one over on Barnsley.

"We deserved to win the play off final.  We should have won promotion to the Championship two years ago."

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