TNS 1 Swansea 1

The Swans do not have a good record in the FAW Premier Cup but tonight they scraped past the leaders of the Welsh Premiership but it took a penalty save and some nervous moments to get there, earning the club a minimum £50,000 in the process.

Kenny Jackett tinkered with his line-up as expected leaving out the likes of Mcleod and Trundle preferring instead to give some other members of his squad a run out. Marcus Bean was a surprise inclusion at right back whilst Stuart Jones made a rare start at centre back.

Murphy

Bean Jones Iriekpen Anderson

Maylett Martinez O’Leary Robinson

Thorpe Forbes

The Swans were ahead inside three minutes when Forbes turned and sent a brilliant crossfield ball into the path of Maylett who out sprinted the defender and drilled a low shot into the corner to give the Swans the lead.

In truth it was about as good as it got for the first forty five minutes though as Swansea proved why they are on a bad run of form – giving the ball away far too cheaply and defending too deep – another particular problem from the midfield. Forbes was always full of running but to little effect as TNS came more and more into the game.

Former Swan Jamie Wood had already missed a couple of good chances when the home side levelled from the penalty spot after the disappointing Iriekpen handled inside the area. Murphy was given no chance and at 1-1 at half time, you could easily argue that the scoreline flattered the league club with TNS very much on top.

It stayed the same was for the early part of the second half although the defence had gained some composure by this point and chances were few and far between but it took a tactical change to alter the course of the match and the play.

McLeod and Connor were introduced to the action as replacements for Thorpe and Forbes and the Swans switched to a 4-3-3 formation using Connor, Mcleod and Maylett as the front men with Robinson moving into the centre alongside Martinez and O’Leary.

And it worked as Robinson started to control the centre of the field and was coming ever nearer to getting the goal that the Swans would have so desperately wanted with extra time looming. His runs from midfield were causing problems in the TNS defence and they were very much on the retreat when the referee signalled the end of normal time and 30 minutes of extra time beckoned.

Swansea pretty much had the better of the extra 30 minutes with Robinson a constant thorn in the side of TNS despite obviously tiring and apart from a shaky last couple of minutes for the Swans, they controlled the extra period without ever looking really threatening.

As penalties arrived, on reflection 1-1 was a fair scoreline although TNS could possibly count themselves unlucky that they did not capitalise on the game when they were by far the better side.

The first four penalties were shared 2-2 before Murphy pulled off two consecutive saves with Martinez first and then Connor scoring immediately after them to send the Swans into the final where Bangor or Wrexham await.

It was by no means a great game and maybe a better side would have punished the Swans but a win is a win and the bank account will look a little more healthy for it.

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