The Swans take on Preston North End this afternoon (3pm) at the Swansea.Com Stadium facing a Lilywhites side under new temporary management. They will take to the field today under the guidance of temporary manager, Mike Marsh. Yes him.
We covered a decent pre match build up below.
⚽️ Click here —> Swans v PNE pre match
There’s more to this game though. Season tickets are well down on pervious seasons, tickets sold are around 4,000, and normally a walk up of around 600 is expected. That’s just over fourteen thousand home supporters for the opening home game of the season. Fans need convincing that’s for sure. The performance against Gillingham came in for a lot of criticism, however let’s be open here. It was fine, no problem at all with it bar the lack of pace and disappointing decision making. Play like that today with more courage and the game will be won. We can only hope some last minute changes of mind see the attendance boosted. We shouldn’t forget to add the away support. PNE haven’t sold out their 986 allocation, but you can surely expect around 600 to travel. Of course the away support shouldn’t and won’t affect how Swans fans view this game.
Luke is still hopeful of more backing from the club Chairman, Andrew Coleman. "The top end of the pitch we are still not finished yet in terms of attacking wide players and I think we have another defender, at least one more, to bring in. I still think four key players that help us to be everything we want us to be - we aren't looking for stocking fillers - I really want us to bring in players to help us move forward in the direction we want to move forward in."
That’s been the difference this summer, the club are signing good players. However, Luke is talking about ‘key’ players, not Sagoe Jr etc. There are injuries, Andy Fisher for one. Luke commented. "He's gonna be a while now in terms of recovery. He's going to be away from the training pitch for a few weeks and is gonna need some time now to get back into training and be ready to play." We believe that’s at least two months out and possibly more. So a goalkeeper search is ongoing. We hear that Sam Parker is out for an extended period, potentially up to four months and Aimar Govea is still struggling and faces quite a long rehabilitation. Joe Allen has trained but is a few weeks away before he is risked, and Josh Ginnelly is still finding it hard to reach a level where he can get back on the training pitch permanently.
New PNE signing, Jeppe Okkels is unlikely to start as Mike Marsh has stated he has hardly trained over the last five days. Ali McCann is out. The visitors look in a lot better shape. Williams first eleven isn’t that bad though. Many people get frustrated by Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton playing in the same midfield, however Franco is available to start as is Eom and Ronald. Those last two are extremely important in providing Zan Vipotnik service on his home league debut. Surely he will start ? The back four picks itself, Josh Key, Josh Tymon, Ben Cabango and Harry Darling with Vigouroux in goal. Even though it is frustrating we expect Jay Fulton and Grimes to start with Franco. Ronald and Eom will be on the flanks and Zan up top. The bench should include, Liam Cullen, Abdulai, Cooper and Naughton with Kristian Pedersen likely to also be on the bench. Take your pick from the rest available.
It is a new season and most certainly the team need vocal support and plenty of it. The Swans must go all out for the win. Luke Williams is desperate to impress and with a very limited squad he is trying to work wonders with what he has. After today the Swans have eight days until Cardiff City at home. That’s plenty of time for rest and recuperation with new players added (we hope) and plenty of positive training sessions.
We are desperate for Luke to impress too, so let’s get right behind the lads.
Due to screening restrictions this game is not LIVE on Sky.
Thanks to @GwynStato.