Notts Co. 0 Swansea 1

John Hollins was forced to reshuffle his side once again as Steve Jones pulled out earlier in the day with a leg injury. He joined Jason Smith and Steve Watkin on the injury list and it once again meant a reluctant return to the full back position for Jason Price. Kris O’Leary continued to deputise for Smith in the centre of defence and Tommy Mutton got the chance to follow up his good performance at Millwall with another start. The early exchanges were fairly even with neither side managing to particularly threaten either goal, but it has to be said that the Swans were poor in the first 45 minutes. The deadlock was broken though on 28 minutes when the impressive Micheal Keegan fed Martin Thomas who gave the Swans the lead with a blistering shot from the edge of the area, leaving the home ‘keeper with no chance. That would prove to be one of the only shots on target for the Swans and somehow they left the pitch at half time with a 1-0 advantage. Notts County rarely threatened to break their home jinx – the Magpies had so far failed to win at Meadow Lane this season and tonight was to prove another disappointment for a sparse home crowd, although about a hundred travelling supporters had managed to fill their tanks and make the 400 mile plus round trip to Nottingham. The home side were more effective in attack in the second half, but their lack of confidence showed as they wasted numerous chances. There were several second half scares but Roger Freestone never actually had to make a save to make. Steve Redcar was the home side’s main source of inspiration as Notts managed brief moments of attack and came close to equalising on three occasions, the best being a close range header which shaved the crossbar. In an attempt to redress the balance, JH brought Keegan off and replaced him with Lee Jenkins. County came close again, another header falling inches wide of the left post and then Swansea’s ever decreasing strikeforce was weakened further when Tommy Mutton withdrew through injury with some 20 minutes left – with both Watkin and Mutton out, the need for a striker is now more desperate than ever. Bari Morgan was the beneficiary of Mutton’s departure as he got a rare taste of first team football. The home side threatened in the latter stages with a final corner that again went over, but they finally ran out of gas (sorry, couldn’t resist it) and the visitors could have scored again when Stuart Roberts – a late substitution for Walter Boyd – made a terrific run that led to a chip, the balling ending up just wide of the right hand upright. The win moves us up to 14th place in the table and the Swans players were understandably delighted as the final whistle blew and they can now look forward, at last, to a home game against Luton on Saturday.