And for his next trick, Lee Trundle will wear a mask

Brian Flynn stands in the boardroom of the Vetch Field, scanning a framed copy of the front and back pages of the local evening paper, datelined Saturday 29 August 1981. A headline is superfluous. Just a scoreline is sufficient. It reads simply: Swansea City 5, Leeds United 1.

The club's current director of football, who as a boy used to struggle for a view amid crowds of nearly 30,000 here, smiles wryly. "I remember that day very well because I was in that Leeds team," the former Welsh international midfielder says. "It was Swansea's first game in the old First Division after they had come up from the old Fourth Division. It was a fantastic era under Tosh [John Toshack], wasn't it? Phenomenal."

It was, and that season City finished an improbable sixth. Then the decline set in, and by 1986 they had returned to the basement where they began. The Vetch was never again to enjoy such distinction. Indeed, mere survival, both financially and in terms of League status, has become the quest of a club whose followers live on memories and view an uncertain future. Last season, they escaped the terrors of relegation to the Conference only on the final day of the season.

"Ten years, 10 managers, and four boards of directors in that time. That's a recipe for trouble," says Flynn, who joined Swansea in September 2002. Finally, at least a state of equilibrium has been restored. City are within sight of the Third Division play-offs, attendances are excellent, a new 20,000 all-seater stadium will be opened next year, and Swansea have reached the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time since 1980.

What's more, they ostentatiously sport a charm bracelet bearing two images that will be causing considerable trepidation among Saturday's fifth-round opponents, Tranmere Rovers: the names Trundle and Flynn. The former has scored in every round so far; the latter is a name to bring torment to any team and manager foolish enough to believe that superior League status is synonymous with Cup progress.

George Graham's Arsenal, of course, were the most illustrious victims in 1992 when Flynn's Wrexham side were transformed from Fourth Division lambs to FA Cup slaughterers, with the victorious manager depicted as not so much Brian, but Errol, Flynn. "We had a proud record at Wrexham," recalls Flynn, who managed them for nearly 14 years, during which he rejected overtures from bigger clubs and the opportunity to manage Wales (a position he would still like to occupy one day). "We played against Premiership sides 10 times in the Nineties [including replays] and won four, drew three and lost three of those games."

If that wasn't an ominous enough portent for their Second Division opponents, what will Brian Little's Tranmere make of Lee Trundle? The Swansea striker's burly six-foot frame, adorned with spiky blond hair, makes him conspicuous on the pitch anyway, but it is his idiosyncratic talents, of a type that has been largely lost to the game because coaches are more at ease with predictability, which make him truly stand out.

On Saturday, you suspect that the Rovers rearguard will be afraid, very afraid, as he sets about them, his features clad in a mask to protect the cheekbone fractured in two places by the swinging elbow of Preston's Claude Davis in the first half of the fourth-round tie. It was as well that Trundle resisted attempts to substitute him. Late in the game, he arrived with exquisite timing to make Preston's defenders appear as static as giant redwoods and chest down and volley the winner. "I had a bit of time to think about it, so I decided not to just head the ball in; a volley looks better than a header, anyway," he recalls with an appealing arrogance.

Trundle insists: "I've been surprised by all the attention, but I've not been surprised by how well I've done, because I believe that whatever level I play at I'll always score goals. I don't see any reason why I can't play at the top. Here, the gaffer and Kev [Kevin Reeves, Flynn's long-time assistant] just tell me to go out and express myself. That's how you get the best out of me. I'm a late starter, I was already 24 when I became a pro, but because I haven't been in the game very long that makes me even more hungry."

There are those who denounce his style. Huddersfield's manager, Peter Jackson, for example, has accused the Everton-supporting Scouser, who has received words of advice from his idol Paul Gascoigne, of "showboating" with his repertoire of ball juggling, back-heels, and sleight of feet at times redolent of Jay-Jay Okocha. If you want such entertainment, go to the circus, is the suggestion of some. There is no doubt that the splendidly named Trundle, now 27, is a Big Top of acts, all of his own creation.

"In terms of originality, what he does with a football, his tricks and skills and techniques, I've never seen anything like him. He's definitely a one-off, a Rodney Marsh type," says his manager, who first signed Trundle when he was managing Wrexham, and saw the striker playing for Rhyl. "We arranged a friendly with Rhyl, in exchange for him training with us, and he got a hat-trick against us in the first half-hour. We signed him the following week. Immediately, he got 10 goals in 12 games for us."

After Flynn and Reeves went to the Vetch, they persuaded Trundle to follow. "He's scored 19 goals this season and been a talisman for us," adds Flynn, who is swift to parry accusations that his forward has the mobility of a Dalek. "His body fat could be a little better, but his weight's static. He's quick with his feet and a quick thinker. How quick was Kenny Dalglish? Frankly, if I asked him to lose two stone he wouldn't be the same player."

So, Tranmere will be confronted by the the full weight of the man in the mask on Saturday. A Lone Ranger among strikers. Afterwards, will they be saying: "Who was that man?"