Planet Swans ArchivesFive players missing for the Swans proved to be an obstacle to big to overcome at the Vetch today as they slipped to their first home defeat since the opening day of the season despite finding themselves in front after less than two minutes.
Moments of indiscretion had cost us the services of Robinson, Monk, Martinez, O’Leary and Connor today meaning that it was an unfamiliar Swans side that took to the pitch just before 3pm led out by captain for the day Andy Gurney.
Gurney had found himself pushed into midfield alongside Gary Fisken, making a rare appearance away from the bench whilst new signings Ijah Anderson and Marc Goodfellow were both handed their debuts at left back and left wing respectively. Alan Tate was at the centre of defence alongside Kevin Austin with Sam Ricketts in Gurney’s normal position of right back. Assistant manager Kevin Nugent made a start in place of Paul Connor alongside Lee Trundle.
Gueret
Ricketts Tate Austin Anderson
Forbes Gurney Fisken Goodfellow
Nugent Trundle
Subs: Murphy, Britton, Corbisiero, Pritchard, Jones
The Swans were ahead inside two minutes when Kevin Nugent turned and shot inside the penalty area from Lee Trundle’s cross to send a crowd just short of 7,000 wild in what was to prove to be the high spot for the Swans. Immediately it was expected that this would be 8 from 8 in terms of league wins at the Vetch but the joy was shortlived and never to be repeated.
A crazy dive in from Alan Tate on the centre circle left Dave Nugent to run at a retreating Swansea defence and fire past Willy from the edge of the area within a minute of the restart to put the visitors level before the shouts had died down from the Swans opener.
It didn’t get much better for the Swans as Bury found themselves ahead just four minutes later when the Swans failed to deal with a high ball and Dawyne Mattis’ volley found the top corner of Willy’s goal. 2-1 to the visitors and still only seven minutes on the clock made you question what sort of score you would see.
Bury were ahead and content from this point to let Swansea have plenty of possession knowing that there looked little that they could do with it. Fisken looked woefully out of his depth in the middle of the park and if today proved one other thing it is simply that as a midfielder, Andy Gurney makes a good right back. The pairing of Martinez and O’Leary may come in for criticism at times but few who witnessed today’s game could doubt that Swansea missed this partnership as all too often they surrendered easy possession in the middle and very often looked to narrow with their options.
New signings Anderson and Goodfellow looked like players who had not played much this season and certainly like a pairing that had not played with each other before.
The reshuffled defence though was coping with what little Bury threw at them although again Anderson did seem to prone to the ball into touch rather than the ball down the pitch. Nugent was Nugent up front and Swansea were resorting to looking for the ball on his head whenever they tried to launch any form of attack and all too often that proved to be a wasted ball.
A half time change was almost inevitable and it involved Kenny Jackett changing his formation to 4-3-3 as he threw on Stuart Jones for Fisken, putting him and us out of our misery, moving Ricketts and Anderson into midfield and Forbes into attack with Austin, Jones and Tate forming the backline.
Swansea did start the second half the brighter and a turn and shot from Trundle fizzed just over the bar as we looked to get back into the game with another early goal. It appeared that the change in tactics may work as the ball appeared to be played more to the flanks and for a 5-10 minute period the Swans looked semi dangerous with some neat movement and balls into the centre.
It proved to be a flickering ray of hope rather than a sustained effort to get back in the game as Bury soon resumed control of the game despite again being happy to conceded plenty of possession to the Swans.
Free kicks from Trundle and Gurney both tested Andy Marriott in the visitors goal but it looked like only a set piece could save the Swans. Britton replaced a disappointed Forbes who muttered “Crap” before heading down the tunnel in what was becoming an increasingly frustrating afternoon for the hosts.
Alan Tate was being caught in possession at the back – forgetting that this is League Two football and not the training pitches at Old Trafford as Bury sniffed that a third goal could be in the offing – and so it proved with just over five minutes to go.
Tate was the guilty man as he made a needless challenge on a man running away from goal and with the size of the referee’s stride increasing noticeably it gave Brian Barry-Murphy the chance to bend an exquisite free kick into the corner beating Willy all ends up.
This in itself caused a mass exodus from the Vetch creating plenty of space for those of us that remained to sit through the torture of the remaining time plus two more minutes. On an afternoon like this it could well have been two more hours and it would be doubtful if it would have made any difference at all such was the lack of real threat coming from the men in white.
The awarding of Alan Tate as man of the match drew a mixture of laughter and groans from what remained of the home support and Bury played out time to take a deserved three points back with them to Greater Manchester.
The good news is for the Swans that they will have three regulars back for next week’s game, the bad news that follows that is that there doesn’t seem to be the strength in depth that we maybe thought/hoped there was in our playing squad. Positives for the day are pretty much zero and after two straight defeats we simply have to win our next league encounter at Oxford in 11 days time.
A disappointing afternoon that maybe could throw in a few home truths and potentially a field day for both the optimist and the pessimist amongst our support,
