The Swans didn’t necessarily crash and burn at the Hawthorns this afternoon, but they did give some hope for the season in front a superb away following. Some will say there is little to take from this game, but the one bright light was Josh Key who was the Swans star man. And then there was Harry Darling.

It was a pretty bland start for Swansea City with the Baggies looking the more dangerous side despite not making the most of the positions they found themselves in. The Swans huffed and puffed and on seventeen minutes the baggies pressure paid off from a long throw. Furlong’s throw saw pinball head tennis with an easy chance falling to Ajayi who smashed the ball home. The Swansea defence at fault as West Brom took a deserved lead. The lack of ability to retain the ball a clear issue for Swansea. Ben Cabango giving the ball away regularly.

Up until that point neither side had looked the better option but the Swans giving the ball away continuously did nothing to aid confidence. The left hand side of the visitors defence was clearly marked out as a weakness. And so it seemed with little resistance to the home sides sweeping passes. The first Swans chance came from a Matt Grimes set piece which saw Nathan Wood with a free header, he headed down in to the ground and over the bar.

The Baggies dropped back as the Swans were allowed to build from defence, but the home sides squeeze on the Swansea players was effective. With more possession the Swans were able to carve out another headed chance but again the execution was weak. Josh Key delivering the cross. With the half hour approaching a lull in the game enabled Albion to take control with some decent inter passing. A cross flashing across the defence. Anyone on the end of that move would have had an easy tap in.

Jerry Yates was looking isolated, and Joel Piroe found himself having to go deep to get some time on the ball. It was pretty nondescript as the thirty mark came and went. Corberán’s strategy was working with few options for the Swans to break the home sides defensive line. Poor passing again from the Swans gave Albion more opportunity to cause issues in the visitors defence. From that control the game became far more positive for the home side earning throw ins and corners which made the Swans look alarmingly unsettled. Defensively it was more luck than judgement that the Baggies didn’t get a second. Their neat play with Swans players in attendance was effective.

Failure to retain possession became the story of the half for Swansea with nothing sticking and any viable pass not taken advantage of. It was disjointed and ineffective. Albion were content to knock the ball around in front of the Swans defence, and when a breakaway opportunity presented itself to the Swans but a lack of pace was evident. The amount of times the Swans put the ball out to wide players for it to go out of play was frustrating to say the least.

Jed Wallace was running things for the Baggies on the right hand side and his presence was a clear danger. The half presented nothing for Michael Duff to work on bar a complete lack of aggression from his charges which would have to change if the second half was to be more positive. Even a Joel Piroe chance saw him blocked out of any real chance to score. It summed up the half for Swansea.

The second half started more energetically for the Swans with Josh Key bursting into the Baggies penalty area but he failed to compose himself at the last. With the pattern of the first half continuing it took a few minutes for the Baggies to get their second. More confusion in the Swans defence with ball watching from a Harry Darling deflection saw the ball hit Carl Rushworth and in to the back of the net. Situations like this are easily avoided with better communication at these set pieces, and this had been lacking the whole game. It was time surely for some urgency from the visitors ?

The clear issue for the Swans was poor decision making when a through ball to cause some danger was either lacking or mistimed. When they did get in to a perceived dangerous position the passing was poor or the wrong option taken. There had to be change, this wasn’t working. Ollie Cooper was booked and looked odds on for a second yellow card as the game at last started to go in the Swans favour. However, no chances were carved out. Then out of the blue a Jerry Yates touch crashed against the crossbar from a Key ‘cross header ‘ and a game of pinball ensued. Sadly nothing came from the corner. On sixty minutes Charlie Patino came on as well as Liam Cullen in an attempt to get back into the game.

And it worked.

Harry Darling earned himself a yellow card for a cynical challenge and the game started to heat up. Seconds later a blatant foul by Darling in the penalty area saw the referee award a penalty and John Swift converted, it seemed game over at 3-0 with sixty five gone. The post mortem of this game will give Duff plenty to talk about this coming week. Not least how his side showed character in the final fifteen minutes.

The Swans continued to press and a corner on sixty six minutes from Grimes really did display how this game had gone for the visitors. Out muscled and out thought. On seventy four minutes a bullet header from Darling pulled a goal back giving the Swans hope. This from a Patino corner. Unmarked he took his chance well. Then a set piece saw another scramble with Baggies keeper Palmer pulling off a world class save. Now the Baggies were looking ragged and Nathan Wood pulled another back from a corner again. Albion were all over the place and looking desperately for help from the sidelines. Memories of past wins surfaced for the older Swans fan.

Nine minutes of added time was signalled and you just knew more opportunities would come.

A Swans corner in injury time again caused chaos in the Baggies penalty box, another ensued. Darling got his head to it and the ball whistled so close to the Albion goal. The game became a scrap, who was the strongest, who had the most will, and if only the Swans could have shown this ability for most of the game ? The introduction of Patino was making a difference. Overall it was a crazy game, the Swans looking pretty poor in the passing department until Patino entered the field of play.

This Duff era will take time and there will be a need for patience if Swans fans want to see some positive results. This game offered little if anything for the Swans fan to get excited about, and one away game doesn’t make a season. But we will want to see more endeavour from the players for things to click. Those last fifteen minutes were nothing if not exciting, the long ball launched into the opponents box something Darling enjoyed and had some success. This isn’t a side that will go down so we can at least draw some positives from that, but to start games as the Swans did today isn’t going to see an effective top six challenge. Plenty more to come.

However, overall there is a lot of hope due to the character shown in the final knockings of a very strange game of football.

WBA: Palmer; Pieters, Ajayi, Kipre; Furlong, Yokuslu (Chalobah 69), Molumby, Townsend; Wallace (Sarmiento 78), Phillips (Mowatt 69), Swift (Maja 78)

Subs: Griffiths, Bartley, Gardner-Hickman, Fellows, Ingram

Swansea City: Rushworth; 6 Darling, 6 Wood, 6 Cabango; 5 Ashby 5 (Patino 60), 7 Grimes, 6 Fulton, 6 O. Cooper 5 (Cullen 60), 6 Key; 7 Piroe, 5 Yates 5 (Ginnelly 89) Not rated.

Subs: Fisher, Abdulai, Allen, Kukharevych, Naughton, Paterson

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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