Planet Swans ArchivesBrian Flynn brought Michael Howard back into the starting line up ahead of Leon Hylton and resisted the temptation to throw Kevin Nugent back into the attack immediately leaving the Swans to line up as
Freestone
Duffy O’Leary Iriekpen Howard
Britton Johnrose Robinson
Maylett Trundle Thomas
A largely forgettable first half saw the Swans huff and puff in the middle of the park but look to Trundle to create some inspiration up front as Thomas was beaten to almost every aerial ball by a reorganised Macclesfield defence. In contrast our back four looked shaky at best as too many times there was confusion between Izzy and O’Leary and once too often for my liking Izzy took the wrong option to try and play himself out of trouble when Row Z may have been the better option.
Britton in the middle was having one of his better games running at the Macclesfield defence while the quieter role of the afternoon went to Andy Robinson who was anonymous at times. Trundle and Robinson both had free kick opportunities that were squandered and the referee did little to restore his popularity with the Swansea fans with some very strange decisions. Britton was booked just minutes after being scathed down on the edge of the area whilst Maylett was tripped in the middle of the park only to be booked for diving. On the other side Macclesfield were picking up equally strange yellow cards.
The game turned though with just two minutes remaining in the half when Trundle fired the Swans into the lead. Seizing on a half chance his left foot shot was beautifully placed into the far corner of the net and the Swans were, perhaps just about deserved, ahead. Thomas had a chance to double that a minute later but was unable to connect firmly with a header as he fell backwards and the keeper saved easily.
Swansea started the second half looking as if they may want to press home their advantage but as the half progressed seemed too keen to sit back and let Macclesfield come more at them. The midfield became nowhere to be seen as long balls from the back created just another attacking chance for the visitors. AN equaliser wasn’t inevitable but it was no real surprise in the way that it came about. A long ball from the back saw Tipton just beat Howard to the ball and as he ran in on Roger he made no mistake with the finish to send the Macclesfield fans into delight.
This made Swansea respond in typical fashion. I never know why but we only show our true potential when we concede a silly goal and for five minutes we played the best football of the afternoon. Trundle had one shot saved by the keeper and as he looked to pounce on the rebound he was tripped by the same player but the referee somehow deemed it not a penalty. My question here would be if it wasn’t a penalty then surely he must have deemed it a dive? So why no yellow card? Just a minute later Trundle did all the hard work but shot over the bar – surely this pressure had to tell? And it did. Awarded a free kick on the edge of the area, Trundle lined up the perfect shot and executed it to perfection into the top corner – the Swans were back ahead.
Macclesfield could have pulled back level again but a shot hit the top of the bar with Roger beaten and the Swans played out the last few minutes against ten men as Macauley was sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence.
Not the best of games but a tense one – something typical of the FA Cup – and it’s now the waiting game until Monday lunchtime to discover the names of our fourth round opponents. £50,000 in the bank for the win will keep the bank manager happy and the Swans can look forward to the visit of Oxford on Tuesday night on the back of two deserved wins.
Man of the Match? Surely has to be Trundle – the ace up our sleeve nearly every game – scored two could have had four.
