|
Pre-season friendly matches become a little farcical when subs are made every time the ball goes out of play but take nothing away from Blackburn who finished well twice, and were gifted two as they won 4-1 at White Rock this afternoon.
That aside there was plenty to be positive about from the first half performance which showed a pretty good indication of the starting XI next week as well as the hope that they can compete comfortably in League One as they were arguably the best side during that opening period despite heading into the interval a goal down.
Jackett sent his side out with the starting formation of
Gueret
Ricketts Monk Iriekpen Austin
Britton Martinez O’Leary
Forbes Trundle Goodfellow
And with Blackburn fielding a strong side in the first half that included Welshman Robbie Savage, the Swans were more than a match.
Goodfellow set the tone within two minutes with a stinging shot that was straight at Friedel in the visitors goal. A forward trio of Goody, Forbes and Trunds could well work and cause Tranmere some problems next week with their interplay between them being good and Goodfellow’s awareness second to none.
In midfield we still looked a little light and I begin to question whether the trio works and I really do feel that somewhere in that three we have to make room for Andy Robinson to give us the drive and link with the front line that we so desperately need but that sadly will have to wait until he completes his suspension.
At the back, Monk and Izzy are probably Kenny’s favoured back two and rightly so. Izzy seems to have erased the errors that used to dampen every performance from him and Monk I still believe is the best central defender at the club. However, the full backs remain a concern. Sam looks more comfortable at left back than right and Austin, as solid as he may be lacks the pace to offer us anything going forward in this position. That has to be a concern.
All that aside, Swansea were the better side during that 45 minutes and spent more time in the Blackburn half than vice versa. Goodfellow picked the ball up from a Blackburn corner and sent Trundle clear after the front man broke the offside trap. However, Friedel saved well from his shot and couple that with other good chances and the Swans were definitely unlucky not to grab the first goal of the game.
That honour went to Pedersen who capitalised on a momentary lapse in the Swans defence to steer a header back across Willy following a cross from the left. 1-0 to the visitors at half time.
The second half was a largely forgettable affair despite containing four goals. It was made more so by the endless substitutions that were inevitable in a friendly of this nature.
A second Blackburn goal came from a header from Reid and a good header it was before Swansea got in on the substitution act bringing on Murphy, Robinson and OTJ to add to the previous addition of both McLeod and Tate.
And it was Tate and Murphy that combined to gift Blackburn two more goals. First off Tate headed against his own post before a goal mouth scramble that ended with Blackburn hitting their third whilst in injury time the same two players mixed up allowing the attacker to sneak in at the back post to make it four.
In between goals, Andy Robinson had caught Friedel out with a free kick from the left that he scored directly from when everyone was expecting the cross.
And so that was that. Swansea’s pre-season ended with it’s only defeat but let’s not get too worked up about friendly results and concentrate on the real stuff that starts next week when Tranmere arrive at the Rock. Bring it on.
CLICK HERE FOR MATCH PICTURES
|
