Footballer Urged To Look To The Stands ...As Family Say Big Thank You!

Mitchell Powell's family will attend their first game since he passed away today.

In tribute they plan to continue to buy Mitch's season ticket. He sat in the East Stand and was renowned for his charity fundraising efforts.

Former Swan and now Sheffield United player Oli McBurnie will be playing later at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Mitch's sister Kirsty and her brother David were hugely grateful for his support during a very difficult time and have created a banner thanking him - which they hope he will see.

LISTEN to interview by clicking TWITTER link:

Kirsty told us: "We were thankful because Mitchell loved Oli McBurnie so much. We knew Mitchell would be beaming to think ‘Oh my God, Oli McBurnie paid for my funeral’, we were over the moon with that thought.

" The money is absolutely amazing, and we could never say thank you enough, but it was more knowing what Mitchell would feel, knowing he’d done that for him. That’s what made it for us, he was just incredible. He still is. We’re still gobsmacked and still blown away.

"We sent him a card up to Sheffield United. We put some photos in and some messages off our immediate family. He messaged then to say he’d received it, and it brought him to tears.

"He does message now and again, asking how the family is, sending his condolences. We just cannot ever thank him enough for what he’s done.

"Me and my other brother David, we were like ‘what can we do to show something to Oli while he’s there’. So, because a lot of people have been doing fundraisers from day one, we had made a banner with just Mitchell’s photo on it that said, ‘thank you’. So, every time someone did a fundraiser, we would take the banner with us. So, we thought perhaps we should do something similar like that but do it even bigger so maybe Ollie could see it. So, that’s what we did and it’s huge.

"And also, it’s going to be a really hard day because it’s the first time Mitchell has ever missed the football. You know, to see his seat empty. We pay for his season ticket to keep going, we’ll do that forever because we can’t imagine anyone sitting in his seat.

“The thought of going over there originally, we were like ‘we can’t go over there without Mitchell being there, it’s going to be too hard’. But then as soon as we knew Oli was going to be there we were like ‘we’ve got to, we’ve got to go’. It’s just a meaningful game, a special game for him. You know, we might not get to see him again, especially down in Swansea.

"All the family are going, my parents, Mitchell’s fiancé, my brother, the in laws so we can all be together on what will be a difficult day. But a special and meaningful one as well because of what Oli has done for us. Hopefully he’ll see the banner at some point anyway."