Planet Swans ArchivesIt’s difficult to think back to the start of the game when you have just witnessed ten minutes of pure madness at the end but I’ll try my best.
Brian Flynn, as expected, recalled James Thomas to the starting line-up in place of the suspended Lee Trundle with Mark Pritchard coming into the matchday squad to take Thommo’s place on the bench. Alan Tate returned after missing last week’s cup tie, leaving the Swans to line up as
Freestone
Duffy Tate Iriekpen Howard
Britton Johnrose Robinson
Durkan Nugent Thomas
Swansea started the match well and a couple of chances had fallen their way when James Thomas put them ahead inside 15 minutes. You probably won’t see a simpler goal at the Vetch all season in terms of the short build up and clinical finish but, simple it may have been, it was also a joy to watch. Johnrose switched a long ball across the centre of the midfield to find Durkan wide right. Durkan’s cross was pin-point perfect onto the head of James Thomas who made no mistake with the header. This was a man with a point to prove and he couldn’t have hoped for a better start to the game.
The joy though was short lived as Southend equalised within three minutes. A long ball out of their defence floated over the Swansea defence and fell nicely at the feet of Constantine who made no mistake in tucking the ball past Roger. 1-1.
But the excitement of the day wasn’t over there. Three minutes later saw the first red card of the afternoon. Robinson tussled with Mcsweeney for the ball and as he tried to break clear the two players legs became entwined. As Robinson tried to get clear McSweeney kicked out at him right under the nose of the referee leaving little option but to produce the red card. The first signs of Southend indiscipline were confirmed as a Steward had to lead the protesting McSweeney from the pitch. In truth he could have little to argue about and only himself to blame.
With ten men and looking the most likely side to score at this point I felt that there would only be one winner. Swansea controlled the possession but without Trundle up front to create chances for himself they resorted to long shots at goal but sadly for too many the shooting boots had been left at home. Thomas, Robinson and Britton were all guilty of wayward shooting as the Swans looked to press home their one man advantage.
And in first half stoppage time they were made to pay for that waywardness. Mickey Howard failed to clear a bouncing ball in the middle of the park and another ball over the top of both Tate and Izzy saw Gower put the ten men ahead right on the interval.
The second half started with Leon Britton, quiet again in the first half, coming back into himself and running at a defence and forcing them backwards. At this stage for fifteen minutes an equaliser looked inevitable as Nugent hit the post with a powerful header and Thomas had another cleared off the line for a corner. Rochard Duffy was taken off to be replaced by Stuart Jones and Coates for Howard with fifteen minutes left after Andy Robinson had rattled the bar with a 30 yard free kick.
The linesman on the centre stand side was not endearing himself to the crowd and certainly needs to go away and look up the word offside in his dictionary when he gets home. But he was to have a big part to play in the madness at the end of the game.
With less than five minutes remaining Southend were awarded a corner. As Gower and Jay Smith, booked for a rash challenge earlier on Britton, were trying to keep the ball in the corner to kill time, they were challenged by Coates. All seemed so simple as the ball rebounded off one of the Southend players for a goal kick but the linesman had seen (or heard) something else. His word to the referee was enough to call Smith back and a second yellow card was produced. This riled Gower, understatement of the year, and his dissent was enough to earn him a yellow card. As Southend looked to re-group they held the board up to replace Gower with Warren. All went well until Gower decided that he hadn’t finished with the linesman and directed a torrent of abuse at him. You don’t have to be the best of lip readers to decipher some of the words and as Gower sat himself down on the bench the linesman called the referee over. I don’t ever recall a similar incident but there was no doubt as to what was going to happen. The referee was clear heard to say to the bench “Which one is 7” and as Gower stood up, up went the yellow card followed by the red. Two bookings in one minute for Gower both because of one decision that he disagreed with – madness? But it wasn’t finished there. One member of the Southend bench threw his own tantrum at the decisions and was immediately directed to the stands. Not one to go quietly he decided to take a pop at some Swansea fans at the same time and I would imagine will face an FA Charge on Monday Morning – probably not alone.
Strangely it hadn’t been a particularly dirty game up to that point and I have no idea what the trigger was to get Smith sent off but for three four minutes I felt that the referee had lost control although it was hard to argue with the red card for Gower having been able to lip read several of his words as he was being taken off.
Flynn responded to the madness by bringing on Pritchard for Tate who I felt had an awful game – not up to his usual standard. With five minutes of extra time being signalled and a three man advantage you had to fancy Swansea to at least get the equaliser. Not today and not with the game degenerating into the farcial. Southend scored again.
Jones and Izzy decided that they would play kamikaze defending while being shadowed by Broughton who, probably not believing the generosity of his hosts, picked up the ball only to see his shot blocked by Roger. But the eight men had two of them following in and Warren slammed the ball home to secure the three points and cue a mass exodus from the Vetch.
Thomas pulled one back with the last kick of the game – in fairness another good goal – but it was too little too late to salvage anything from the game.
It’s hard to know where to sum up. The history books will show that we lost to eight men – they could easily have showed that we won comfortably against ten. I don’t know what caused the second sending off but it certainly made for one of the most bizarre periods of football I have seen in 25 plus years of following the Swans.
Another point to mention is the yellow card for Kevin Nugent which means, by my reckoning, that he will miss the visit of Yeovil on the 28th – that will be chance to see if Trundle and Thomas can play together?
Man of the Match? Hard one to call today in my book. Britton started well, faded, started again and faded again. Robinson tried too much, Johnrose wasn’t there for me and Durkan just didn’t see enough of the ball. Nugent lost most of what was aimed at him and Tate and Izzy looked shaky at the back. Howard had a decent game but was at fault for the second goal so I guess it has to go to the man who made a scoring return to the side James Thomas. But even Thommo was nowhere near at his best – first touch let him down too often.
The referee will be a busy man tonight and something further will be said about some of the incidents that a very disappointing crowd of 5,439 saw. Many of them also missed the last goal of the game.
This was one that you would earmark for us to win with tougher tests against Doncaster, Torquay, Yeovil and Oxford to come in our next four games. You would have to say that those 4 could make or break our season?
