Joel Piroe out until November as Swansea City don’t appeal his red card

Twenty three year old Joel Piroe has been banned for three games after his sending off for stamping at Burnley on Saturday. His dismissal in the seventy fourth minute means he misses tonight’s game against Reading, and next Sundays derby clash against Cardiff City. He will also miss the following game at Bristol City.

Swansea City reviewed the footage and took advice on Monday afternoon that pointed towards an unsuccessful appeal.

It may well come as a welcome break for Piroe but the timing with the Cardiff City game on the horizon especially couldn’t have been any worse. It may solve an immediate issue with Michael Obafemi being available for a position up front tonight, but if he was to be injured then it would be a serious issue for Swansea. Obafemi took a bad knock on Saturday and was assessed yesterday morning as fit.

We expect to see Luke Cundle and Oli Cooper involved tonight and a return to the starting eleven for Harry Darling. As has been the pattern in Russell Martin’s managerial career a good run is often brought to an abrupt end and a drop in performance levels commences. That has to be the priority for Martin before tonight’s game, to prevent another slump. The swans had their very decent run ended at Burnley on Saturday after a tremendous run of results which took them in to the top six.

A win tonight could see the swans return to the play off places.

That’s the big question many Swansea City supporters will want answered tonight. Has Russell Martin got the formula right this time to prevent another poor run of results after being so successful in recent times ?

Tonight’s game is on the Sky Sports red button or available via Swans TV in the UK and abroad.

Kick off is 7.45pm at the swansea.com stadium.

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