A late equaliser from Coventry City denied the Swans a deserved victory on the road tonight as they moved up to 8th

swansrus

Paul Macartney once wrote
‘In a Stadium in the middle of a roundabout
Some Midlands people watch the Sky Blues try to play,
And though they’re better when they play away
They do anyway ’

But he thought better of it in the morning and the rest is history.

Still, some 15,000 Coventry supporters turned up last night and sat in respectful silence to listen to around 900 Welshman get right behind the Swans form start to finish (well, apart from the last 5, when they were too busy cacking themselves). They also witnessed a Swansea side, with two of its most influential midfielders missing, come close to taking all three points, from a closely fought contest.

The Ricoh is an impressive arena, but last night it was half empty. The only atmosphere was behind the goals where the Swans supporters kept up ‘Martinez Barmy Army’ for what seemed like half the game – and when that died out ‘Hymns and Arias’ and the usual Cardiff complements (not) rippled around.

On the pitch the Swans seemed determined that the loss of Bodde and Britton was not going to stop their passing game. Gomez was always involved, trying to play in Gower at every opportunity. Pintado worked hard again – surely he is due a hatful soon – while Scotland would have silenced anyone who has criticised his application. He was always willing to drop deep to pick up the ball, holding it up well and tracking back at times when needed. Although, I guess there are some who will say that he should have sat on the 18 yard box and waited for the ball to come to him, rather than playing more like a forward midfielder. But against a team who put three men around him whenever he got a sniff of a ball around the box, at least he was making the effort to create room for himself and bring others into the game.

Range had a great game, putting dangerous balls across their goal line, and making some strong challenges at left back. As second half wore on, he was becoming more frustrated with the referee for giving decisions against him and had to be restrained by Monk. The Spaniard was giving the man in black a tirade of abuse that was no doubt alien to the official – but Angels body language spoke volumes and was in danger of getting him booked.

De Vries showed his strengths and weaknesses in equal measure – fumbling some easyish shots and crosses – one such error leading to the ball being stuck away, but being thankfully ruled offside, and then pulling off two great stops at the death to prevent us going home empty handed. Earlier Gomez had sweetly struck in the top right corner after a debatable free kick was given – there appeared to not much wrong with blocking tackle against him. This was evened up by the ref in the later in the half when he started leaning towards the home side.

The free kick that led to their goal was like our earlier one, a dubious decision - and Fox duely replicated Gomez’s earlier effort. But the ball should never have been where it was for OTJ to handle. A few moments earlier he had a chance to clear, but as on several occasion last night, his headers away looped up instead of away and the ball was played back in.

1-1 then it was. Credit though to Monk , Williams and Pratley who threw themselves in front of goal bound shots – showing real determination to prevent an undeserved loss. Gower had a good game – but again shooting wide when it seemed easier to hit the target – he is overdue getting on the scoresheet - if his goal potential was a pregnancy it would have been induced weeks ago (not sure if that works – but you get my drift). Bessone showed flashes going forward, but was undone a few times by their speedy, tricky winger.

All in all a fair result - and they had 2 disallowed – so we can’t complain about the officals. OTJ improved on his performance against Watford, Pintado is getting there, defence excellent, Scotland showed he can pull his finger out. Think I’d rather go for Dimi on Sunday though. Cheerio. 

newburypark_jack

These are my notes from the game:

De Vries - first game back, looked very shaky at times. Dropped the ball on numerous occassions, on another day it could have cost us a few goals. Appreciate he needs to build up a bit of confidence and match sharpness, but my heart was in in my mouth every time a cross came in

Defence - A lot of effort was put in blocking shots and pushing forward, but if we'd been playing against a decent team we would have shipped 5 or 6 goals. It's been our problem for a number of years now, but we seem to be unable to defend crosses, corners or free kicks. Bessone struggled against Misfud, but as someone else pointed out, Gower did not track back at all last night.

Gower - Faced three different right-backs, none of which could really cope with him. The Cov fans behind me felt he was our best player, but that he didn't always make the most of the possession he had

Midfield - Did well, OTJ and Pratley handled the Cov midfield though there were a few to many sideways passes being played when there were other options. Agree with someone else on here that said that OTJ just needs a bit more time, he's barely played this season.

Gomez - Brilliant, though I would have taken him off after he was penalised for diving. Each time a player went near him I was waiting for a cynical hack. Excellent free kick...though it was never a foul.

Scotland - First touch was dreadful, often just ran into defenders and threw a hissy fit when he got to the bench. Needs to improve.

Pintado & Scotland - Do not work as a strike partnership. There's no connection between them, it's like playing two lone strikes up front, there's no awareness of where the other one is. Bussy should have come on a lot sooner.

Pintado - Did alright, unlucky not to get a penalty in the first half but never looked any real danger.

Overall we played alright, but Cov were nothing special and I do see it as 2 points dropped. Having said that I don't think we deserved to win, we didn't create that many clear cut chances and a better side would have given us a hiding last night. If we play like that on Sunday then we could be in trouble.

Apologies if this is all too negative, but this is how I saw it!

Photo: Action Images

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