Oxford Retro

Swans 1 Oxford 2

Useless, ineffective, hopeless, of no use, a waste of time, futile, inadequate, worthless and ineffectual sums up the referee today, but don’t get me started on the Swans who were even worse than that!

Oxford bottom of the league were the better side and deserved their win with two great goals. Today’s Referee can think himself very lucky indeed. On almost any other occasion, an official responsible for such an appalling performance would need a UN envoy just to get back to the M4. As it was, whilst the crowd did vent their frustration towards the man in black from time to time, there were 11 other “men” on the pitch who were higher up the hit list as far as most of those unfortunate enough to be present were concerned.

This was another spineless, lackluster performance from a Swansea City side which, with the additions of Romo and Saverese, should have enough ability to keep us in Division 2 – today’s debacle wouldn’t be good enough to keep us in the Conference.

Starting with the familiar 4-4-2 formation, they started bad and got worse. Oxford had controlled the opening play but found themselves behind after 12 minutes after Steve Watkin knocked in a simple goal after good work from Jason Price on the right. It was a good passing move but the fact that the home side were ahead was a travesty as it was practically the first time that they had managed to get the ball out of their own half.

Credit to the visitors, many a side in their lowly league position would have rolled over and given in at such an injustice. Not so Oxford, it took them just 5 minutes to get back on terms after a great strike from 25 yards by Joey Beauchamp. Having said that, he was given all the time in the world to pick his spot as he ghosted past two half tackles from a backing off Swansea side.

Half tackles would prove to be the order of the day – Jenkins, Romo and Cusack were some of the worst culprits but there seemed to be a general lack of commitment all round. Price had another bad game playing out of position at full-back, despite putting a fine cross in for Watkin’s goal and also almost creating another one for Lee Jenkins. Jenkins was one of the biggest dissappointments, he didn’t commit himself to the tackle in the well-timed, incisive way that he has been this season.

He too does not seem to playing in his natural position wide on the right. Nor for that matter is Stuart Roberts who was played wide left today and saw very little of the ball. Of the two new boys, Saverese had very little to do and certainly had no real chances on goal. Having said that, his strike partner Steve Watkin had a dreadful game – even accounting for the fact that he finally got on the score sheet early on. But which striker got taken off?

Yes, it was the unlucky Mr Saverese who saw his number in lights on 80 minutes. Why him and not Watkin? Why did Appleby and Thomas replace Roberts and Romo and not the ineffective Jenkins or the pointless Cusack? Answers on a postcard please Mr Hollins. In a way, the referee did us a favour by ruthlessly sending Matthew Bound off with 20 minutes left.

The pictures from the HTV cameras will no doubt be completely inconclusive, but suffice to say the Oxford defender may well be up for a RADA scholarship after his performance prior to Bound’s red card. The sending off did us a favour you say? Well, it forced the Swans to change their style of play a bit – it was obvious that nobody else was going to make that happen. The sending off almost inevitably led to us looking more likely to score, but even then a couple of half chances was all that emerged.

Walter Boyd saw 10 minutes of action near the end, in the cold and the rain and with his team 2-1 down to the a team that had only won one game and scored 5 points all season, I’m sure the Jamaican international must be wondering where his career went wrong. Normally, the easiest way to write these reports is to describe the action in terms of the different phases in the game.

That isn’t really possible today, there was only one phase, that of the Swans not showing the effort or the passion that the paying punters demand and expect. Rest assured that far fewer will turn up next time, they have been severely let down – no worse than that, kicked in the teeth.

Nearly 5000 turned up today despite having been fed on a diet of inconsistency and pathetic excuses for football matches for much of the season. Rather than repaying them for that patience and loyalty, the players and coaching staff have rewarded them with utter trash and another miserable journey home on a Saturday afternoon. As someone who has so far attempted to defend the manager and preferred instead to point the finger at our under achieving players, tonight I don’t see how I can ignore the question of John Hollins’ future.

A few more performances like today’s and it may not be too long before Mr Hollins has to make a miserable journey home of is own.

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