Planet Swans ArchivesI’m glad he did due to the fact that he can now eat his own words! I arrived in Swansea and made the 10 minute walk from the train station to the ground, the weather wasn’t brilliant, but it could have been worse.
I got to the ground and entered the turnstile and took my seat in the east stand and browsed through the programme. When the squad I was surprised thinking that we were going to play Thomas upfront with Cash, with no Keaveney in the squad, but Flynn putting three strikers on the bench (Wood, Watkin and Williams). Finally the referee put whistle to mouth and the game started with the Swans attacking towards me (East Stand).
The attendance was around 3,500 and that was good considering the clubs position, Wales V Fiji and the weather, which wasn’t the best. For the first 20 minutes the football wasn’t the best and lots of route 1’s were being used, and most of them went towards Cash, who made no attempt to win the ball, in both the air and on the ground. Cash has the potential to be a good player but he is too afraid to get stuck in, and bottles all of 50/50 chances he gets. In the first half Cash made one contribution where he played a ball through to Thomas, who’s shot forced a save from the Macclesfield keeper.
The Macclesfield fans couldn’t be heard from where I was all game, so I am unaware if they chanted, but I heard the North Bank who were in fine voice as always. During the first half, Murphy was quiet, but did win a few headers and a few free-kicks which both came to nothing, James Thomas didn’t have a lot to do but had one great run, where he turned on the half way but was forced wide and his cross, had no real accuracy, but he got all the fans on the edge.
Macclesfield had one great chance in the first half, which was destined for the net, but Freestone pulled of a fantastic save to keep us still goalless. Macclesfield came out early for the second half, at least 5 minutes before the Swans, when the Swans came out they were without Lee Jenkins (who in my opinion played well in the first half, working hard) and without Cash (who did nothing spectacular, and I can’t see why he’s with Nottingham Forest) they were replaced by Wood who took up Cash’s position on the right wing and Mumford who played in the centre. The second half began and was similar as the first half with very few clear cut chances, Macclesfield had some good efforts turned away by Freestone and had lots of corners which some looked dangerous, on one occasion the ball went straight through our area, anything could have happened.
Then in the 84th minute Michael Howard chased and slid at the ball, putting the keeper under pressure who fumbled it and with that the Swans were in he hit a cross in the box, about waist height and Murphy who was alone in the box as the defender was beaten, dived at the ball and scored. The stadium erupted and Murphy done a rather peculiar celebration, which I couldn’t make out. With that all we had to do was hold on, which we are not very good at but this looked to be our lucky day, as the whistle went three points were in the bag.
The players were applauded off, much different from the booing from the Kidderminster game. Overall I think we just edged out and deserved to win, but work needs to be done to get Thomas into play as he has to come back for the ball, leaving no one upfront, and on some occasions in the first half he was defending. My Man of the Match would be Roger because of some good saves and yes a clean sheet which is great for a change.
