Three games in seven days for Swansea City means we will see some slight changes in the personnel selected for tomorrow afternoons Championship game against Bristol City. Then comes the away game at Sheffield United on Wednesday evening and then the home game against Stoke next Saturday at the Swansea.com.
The bonus for Swans fans is that tomorrow afternoon is a 3pm kick off, the midweek fixture is the traditional 7.45pm start, and then next Saturday the Swans play Stoke with another 3pm kick off. This again gives supporters an opportunity to enjoy traditional kick off times which the Swans have enjoyed for the vast majority of this season. There should be no reason why these two home games can’t produce an upturn in attendances compared to what we have seen already this season.
With the Swans in seventh, and that will change we think today, they are playing catch up which means tomorrows game is a must win only in terms of league position. Despite head coach, Luke Williams stating he isn’t sure about his squads ability and wants more games to decide, this is a great platform for Swansea City to get more spectators into the ground for both tomorrows and next Saturday’s fixtures. Luke Williams is clearly concerned about his squad, and its ability to not revert to some of the awful football we saw against Wycombe and the first half against West Bromwich Albion. You can understand his hesitancy.
We expect a few new faces in the squad tomorrow, if the work this week on Aimar Govea, Sam Parker and Kyrell Wilson has paid off of course. All have had bad injuries in very recent times, so we don’t expect them to play dramatic parts in the game, unless of course they come on from the bench. For us Sam Parker is the man this season to make progress, he has bulked out, still has his pace, and if he can remain injury free is the player Luke needs to call upon out wide. It also stops Azeem Abdulai being devalued in a similar role he doesn’t enjoy and cannot do.
The Swans have no choice but to look to the younger academy products. It’s already been stated by the Chairman, Andrew Coleman this week, he as coy about finances. He was asked on the available finances to give new contracts out, he couldn’t answer that question, or more precisely ‘ Have the Swans got the finances to offer Harry Darling and Ben Cabango new deals’ He couldn’t answer that.
Liam Manning, the Robins head coach, another young manager has spoken about this fixture. "We’ve got a few more coming back in contention through recovering from injuries and getting back to a level of fitness where they’re ready to compete. We’ve got some good depth and some good competition” It’s looking like Atkinson and Earthy will be out, the latter seems a key player for the Robins this season, he has an ankle injury. McCrorie, albeit featuring for the U21 side in their loss against the Swans age grade side on Monday afternoon, Isn’t expected to feature, that’s slightly too early.
Thanks again to Gwyn Davies.
When we spoke yesterday regards this weekends game it was evident that these fixtures are hardly memorable. An unremarkable ‘derby game’ that seems to be more important to the Robins than the Swans. The off the field antics aside. Robins fans will be escorted from the train to the ground tomorrow by the police, and coaches very carefully monitored. The easiest journey and far less inconvenient is by car. It is expected the Swans may well see a few thousand more on the attendances we have seen so far this season at the Swansea.com. The game being on TV may well be a factor for the many who travel from England. However, quite clearly this is a game that again will test Luke Williams credentials to manage his side and remain in contention with the top six.
It’s easily turned into a family fun day, tickets for the south stand are still available, the next generation of Jacks need to see their team play in the flesh to catch the Swansea bug.
Tomorrow is a great opportunity to see a game that will have the atmosphere that grips youngsters and attract them to a team that most likely they will never switch from. That’s how football fandom works.