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Swansea 4 Mansfield 1 |
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Forced into several changes through injury, Brian Flynn sent his new look Swansea side onto the field in an 4-3-3 formation looking like this Freestone Jones O’Leary Iriekpen Hylton Jenkins Britton Robinson Trundle Nugent Durkan This promised to be another big test for the Swans with Mansfield arriving at the Vetch on the back of 8 goals in their last two games. With the influential Martinez and Johnrose both missing through injury and Maylett suspended there was talk about whether we would continue our good run. The defeat at Oxford had affected the crowd with under 7,000 in the Vetch for the game and Mansfield, despite their protests were around 100 short of selling their allocation of 280. Just as well we didn’t believe their fans when they estimated 700 could be sold! It does amaze me though as to why our gate was down by 2,000 on the Boston game – maybe too many stay away after just one defeat – an unlucky one at that. Swansea were given an unexpected boost after just eight minutes when Mansfield’s leading scorer Christie was shown the red card for an elbow on Izzy. We can possibly say we were lucky here that the linesman only saw the retaliation as there was no doubt that Izzy made the first blow. Had the linesman seen this then two straight reds would have followed but, in football, these things happen. With the main threat up front off, Swansea were quick to capitalise. A through ball from Trundle found Durkan on the right of the area and he struck a first time shot into the corner of the net to send Swansea into the lead. From then on, certainly until half-time, Mansfield were marginally the better side. The football that they played was very pretty at times and with the Swans lacking in midfield, they had plenty of possession. On too many occasions, a Swans attack broke down and the Mansfield players found themselves in too much space as the Swans midfield was nowhere but the defence was holding firm with Roger having very little of note to do in the Swansea goal. Mansfield though drew level just before half time. A corner on the right was played into the box and despite a challenge that many referees would see as a foul, the ball broke to Vaughan who drilled a powerful shot into the net to send the two sides in level at 1-1 at the break. Worth also mentioning here that had Williamson connected with Robinson on one challenge in the first half then not only would a red card have been produced but we would be looking at another midfielder facing a spell on the sidelines. But that was only delaying (red card wise) what looked the inevitable. The second half belonged purely to Swansea. Andy Robinson hit a free kick home from 25 yards after 15 minutes of the second half – one that Beckham would have been proud of and Swansea were back in front. At 2-1, Mansfield were probably capable of getting back into the game but Swansea weren’t to let this lead slip. Kevin Nugent sent Lee Trundle away with 20 minutes of play remaining and he rounded Pilkington in the Mansfield goal who was outside his area. Although he seemed to have lost his way slightly he was clipped by the defender and the referee pointed to the spot. Again, a decision that went our way as I would like to see this one again to see if the foul was inside or outside of the area. But we said that same at Oxford on Monday and it made no difference as up stepped Trundle to notch his 6th of the season and to effectively kill the game off for the Swans. Just 60 seconds later, Pilkington again was on the wander and this time his clearance rebounded off the Mansfield defender and into the path of Nugent who composed himself, had a look around, a cup of tea and a sandwich and rolled the ball into the empty net – Swans had four goals again. And there looked more coming. Britton was coming into the game more and as he ran at the Mansfield defence he was pulled from behind by Lawrence. As he lay on the floor, Williamson – already booked – took a kick at him and all hell broke loose. Virtually everyone joined in the brawl but it was Williamson who was shown the red card much to his disgust. He can pull all the faces he wants to but the referee had no choice and Williamson can count himself lucky he lasted that long. A further yellow from the incident from Lawrence was the only other punishment handed out by the referee from the incident. Corbisierio was handed his league debut in place of Robinson and the Swans coasted home with a few more chances and another good display. Contrast this to the two home fixtures so far and this was not the fluent Swansea but it was a Swansea good enough to win with a little help from the referee but who cares? We lost at Oxford on Monday when we possibly didn’t deserve to and these things even themselves out. We deserved to win this one but 11 on 11 who knows what the score would have been. Man of the match for me? Very hard one to call as there were so many dogged performances but I am going to go for Andy Robinson who never stopped running and looking for the ball and he capped it off with his exquisite free kick. To a man though this was Swansea playing a determined game and how nice it was to see as well. Expect some comments from the Mansfield fans about the referee but he did the job he had to do – Izzy got lucky, maybe the penalty wasn’t but Swansea were the better team on the day and that is what counts. Into the South West next week for our first league trip to Yeovil – you honestly wouldn’t bet against another Swansea victory would you? |
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