Planet Swans ArchivesA barnstorming rollercoaster of a game today. There was some surprise that Tate was at centre half with Austin, and Monk at right back, Ricketts left. Monk certainly seemed surprised and was still working this out when from the kick off the ball was sent into the space where he should have been but wasn’t. Gray fired in a great cross between Willy and Tate and Eastwood ran straight onto it. 0-1. There was a bit of an altercation between Tate and Monk that Willy had to break up. Next time please sort this out BEFORE you get on the pitch. So after 8 seconds we are one down. This was going to be another one of those days at Southend – remember Stu Roberts’ last game for the Swans (2-4) and the momentous and emotional must win 2-0 victory the Tuesday after the calamitous home defeat by Carlisle in our near relegation season.
The next ten minutes was like the shoot out at the OK Corall. Southend were breaking quickly and hitting fast early crosses that would be difficult for most defences to deal with, but in midfield, Swans were all over them like a rash. On ten minutes Trundle worked himself some space in the middle and a superb ball sent Connor away toward the eighteen yard box. As the keeper raced out (it was the Wurzels second string rather that the comedian Alderton) Connor calmly lifted it over and into the corner of the net. The game settled a little after that but there was still plenty of action. The pattern of Swans possession and Southend breaking continued. Monk was clearly uncomfortable on the right and for once our defence was not inspiring confidence. The ref seemed to be a bit of a homer on the 50/50s and whilst this tended to break up the Swans momentum it would be wrong to say this was a match changer. Amongst this, some great fluid play from the Swans. Raking 40 yarders to bring Maylett into play, Trundle looking hungry and Tate strong at the back. O’Leary and Martinez were involved in everything and Swans were looking perhaps the more likely. I was in the queue for a hot-dog and coffee when a muted roar told me that Southend had scored. Its funny how you can tell the difference between a Swans roar and someone else’s. Sure enough it turned out that ex-Cardiff Spencer Prior had knocked in a corner. That’s what we get for winding him up with shouts of “Scum! Scum! Scum!”. Sometimes it works and they get put off their game, this time it was given back with interest.
It was a bit of a relief to get to half time to have a bit of a rest. Swans would be playing towards our goal in the second half and it looked like we’d be getting more of the same. We lined up with Tate and Monk at Centre back, Austin left and Ricketts right. This made more sense and Ricketts should be able to get Maylett into the game more. The game carried on as before. Trundle, Maylett and Ricketts weaved a few bits of magic down the right but our approach play was more intricate than Southend who continued to attack with pace down either flank. A couple of Trundle efforts might have had a more positive result but the odd stray pass was beginning to appear. On 57 minutes, Monk in plenty of space passed across to Austin. The pass was underhit and Austin was slow to react. Gray (again) was able to nip past Austin and, with the rest of the Swans defence flat footed, send in an inch perfect pass to Eastwood (again) to easily head past Gueret. This was particularly galling as it is the sort of gift we thought we’d seen the back of. Forbes came on for Maylett to try and change things and began by winning a couple of headers. At 3-1 down we needed to be back in the game. On 67 Robinson got himself some space and let fly from 25 yards and the goalie was barely able to parry it. I thought it had gone straight through him, such was the pace but it had gone for a corner. On 75 Martinez tried his luck from the same distance. Fitzgerald came on a for a tiring Connor and looked sharp immediately. On 81 a great cross in from Trundle was met by Forbes. It looked to me as if he was half way to the ground but managed to cushion the ball on his head whilst at the same time directing it onward. We watched open mouthed as the ball arced gently through the air at an impossibly low and slow trajectory into the net. A quick glance at the ref – surely he was going to blow up for something????? No!!! Then uproar. We were back in it. We nearly scored again straight away from a series of corners. But no. To be fair to Southend they were looking dangerous on occasions and having plenty of the play as we pushed forward, but their fourth goal that finished it was pure farce. A lot of action around the right of our penalty area.Three 50/50 tackles which all bounced back into play and finally, through pure chance to Eastwood. He stepped forward and let fly. The ball cannoned down off a blocking Swans tackle and deflected past a stranded Gueret into the far corner. Well that was game over.
It was all too much for some and as the Swans kicked off again “it” kicked off 20 yards to our right. A guy in the middle (let’s not pass judgement on him till the facts are known) was being hauled up the 5ft wall by stewards and a few fists were flying between Stewards police, this bloke and some other Swans fans wanting to join in. This action was rudely interrupted when the ball flew down off the bar in front of us and bounced back toward an advancing Fitzgerald. He looked totally composed as he held of his marker and shaped to strike but the ball lifted off the outside of his boot and shaded wide when it should have been the inside to get over the advancing keeper. Apparently Trundle had lobbed the keeper pretty much straight from the kick off and I’ll look forward to seeing that one on Soccer AM next week.
marched out, the rest of us were left to shake our heads and try and make sense of this. Full marks to Southend – they played well and were ‘up for it’. No complaints about the result, they earned it. At times we were a bit jaded. But the goals that I saw conceded were soft. So let’s return to being mean at the back. There were goals in the team. Fitzgerald looks handy. And we can still do much better going forward. I think we should throw this one in the bin and get started again on Tuesday – now a top vs second clash. Hopefully Orient will get a dose of what happens when you go top of the league! Finally, a word on the great travelling support, the very great majority of whom travel to support their team and have a good day out, being friendly and respectful to others. Long may it continue.
