It seems it doesn’t matter who the side are, if they have the nickname bluebirds attached to them they will be knocked for seven. In a friendly played at Fairwood, Swansea - Haverfordwest County brought a full strength side but had little to stop a very positive Swansea City.
The first half saw the swans line up like this.
Swansea City (first half): Andy Fisher, Joel Latibeaudiere, Nathan Wood, Harry Darling, Kyle Naughton, Matt Grimes, Flynn Downes, Liam Walsh (21’ Ben Lloyd; Lloyd replaced by Joel Cotterill 31’), Cameron Congreve, Joel Piroe, Matt Sorinola.
It was Joel Piroe who again showed his class scoring a twenty eight minute hat trick with Kyle Naughton opening the scoring on eight minutes. Cameron Congreve really did shine in the first half, and he will most certainly present his manager with some very positive selection headaches this coming season. Swansea City’s movement was far too much for the bluebirds to handle and Liam Cullen scored a second half brace. Jamie Paterson also chipped in during the second half.
Swansea City (second half): Steven Benda, Azeem Abdulai, Brandon Cooper, Nathanael Ogbeta, Ollie Cooper, Jay Fulton, Morgan Whittaker, Jordon Garrick, Kyle Joseph, Jamie Paterson, Liam Cullen.
Changing his eleven completely at half time saw Liam Cullen and Morgan Whittaker playing together as they did for Lincoln City last season on loan. Bar Paterson the second half side looked very much like a second string with Steven Benda replacing Andy Fisher in goal. Ben Lloyd too will have enjoyed his brief appearance coming on for Liam Walsh in the first half. Haverfordwest did have their moments towards the end of the first half but the resilience of Nathan Wood and Andy Fisher kept the visitors out and it was Wood who also came close to scoring as the half ended.
Garrick also had his moments as the game wore on hitting the woodwork as did Kyle Joseph when it looked easier to score. Cullen could have added to his tally, his brief clearly to make darting runs into the box catching the visitors defence unawares. Again it was Zak Jones in the bluebirds goal who came to the aid of his team.
Russell Martin will be pleased with this run out, it was a competitive game and he will take a lot from what he saw. There will be other run outs in a variety of structured games at Fairwood over the next ten days. Then the first friendly in front of spectators on July 12 will be at Plymouth, a big Swansea City turn out is expected much the same as last season at Home Park.
Post match Martin said "I’m really pleased with their application and the way they have trained these past two weeks. And that’s everyone, regardless of whether they played a lot last season or not. It was a nice way to finish off the first two weeks because they have worked really hard, both physically and tactically. Talking about Matt Sorinola and Harry Darling he said” Whenever you sign for a new club it’s hectic and intense, and it probably helped that we knew two of them already so they knew what to expect and it’s great to work with them again.
Sorinola in action against Haverfordwest County
Martin continued, "And Nathan (Wood) has been brilliant, a great profile and a really exciting prospect for us. There’s loads for us to work on with all the players but I think they are coming into a group which helps each other.We’ve tried to step up the opposition in every game over pre-season in order to face different challenges and different tests. It suits us being here at Fairwood, we can be flexible with minutes, we can play four 30-minute games rather than two 45-minute games. It’s going to be different challenges and tests and hopefully we step up a level each time.”
Highlights here –>