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What a Beautiful Day was the tune that rang out around White Rock at the end of the ninety minutes and although maybe a draw would have been the fair result it matters not at any stage of the season as the record books will always show a 1-0 victory for the Swans.
And boy what an atmosphere. To anyone that was worried that we could not recreate the noise of the Vetch they should now be thinking to themselves just how quiet the Vetch really was as White Rock did literally rock with a wall of sound demonstrated superbly for the moments that saw Jason McAteer miss his penalty.
16,733 is the stadium record attendance to watch out for as the Swans celebrated their biggest league attendance for over two decades and with maybe 5-600 away fans in the ground, the sheer size of the stadium hit home when it looked a non-existent away support showing that appearances are very much deceptive in this new world.
But onto the match, alongside debutant Akinfenwa there was a starting place for Marc Goodfellow in a 4-4-2 line up.
GUERET
RICKETTS MONK IRIEKPEN AUSTIN
FORBES MARTINEZ O’LEARY GOODFELLOW
AKINFENWA TRUNDLE
Maybe the expected line up was 4-3-3 and maybe it could have been at the same time but this was the first league line-up at White Rock and the anticipation around the ground pre-match was electric. Queues at the ticket office pre-match as those pre-booked were waiting to be picked up were expected as the crowds flocked to welcome Swansea back to League One.
And with a tough test against one of the pre-season favourites this was a day that we had waited many years for and it finally arrived.
Goodfellow continued his fine pre-season form with some probing play and great running whilst Trundle was kept pretty quiet in the first half, his destiny was clearly not to score the first league goal at the stadium.
At the back, Swansea looked solid enough but were prone to the odd error here and there but retained the control they desired over the first half despite having to wait half hour for the opening.
Trundle received a throw in on his chest, turned and crossed over the keeper’s head for Bayo to head in and White Rock erupted. The Swans were one up. But that really was the start of the madness.
Izzy dived in too early and Ricketts was adjudged to have pulled back the forward and Mr Probert, an incredibly incompetent referee, pointed to the spot. Harsh it seemed but the decision was given. The ever popular – not – McAteer stepped up to a roar of noise and fluffed his lines as Willy saved low down to his right. White Rock erupted again.
| Bayo demonstrates ball on back of head routine |
On the stroke of half time Probert was again in the thick of the action as he awarded a second penalty of the afternoon, this time for a foul on Trundle. It was as unlikely as the first in reality and justice was probably done when Trundle missed his spot kick to keep the score at 1. Aside of two dull penalties being awarded the referee failed to award a stonewall one for a foul on Forbes and you just knew that somewhere in his mind he had reasoning for his decisions. 16,733 people couldn’t see it but it was there somewhere.
Tate replaced the injured Monk at half time forcing Austin into the middle, Tate at RB and Ricketts at LB. They had been in control first half but for the majority of the second it wasn’t a case of hanging but definitely backs to the wall.
All too often we were defending deep – a typical Swansea trait – and allowing Tranmere to come at us and get their shots in on goal. But when they were there there was the rock that is Willy Gueret to deal with them at times seemingly effortlessly. Man of the match? Not so much by a country mile but by a country acre or ten.
But it wasn’t complete one way traffic and on another day Trundle would have been on the scoresheet at least once. One shot was cleared off the line when he just didn’t give it the pace it needed and several other chances went begging. Forbes saw a roaster tipped over whilst Tranmere battled hard at the other end.
Entertaining it was but it did little for the nerve ends as 2 minutes of stoppage time moved into four minutes with the fussy Probert seemingly giving free kicks merely for us keeping the ball. McAteer was booked as was Bayo along with a couple more from them but it was our day and as the final whistle blew the first points were on the board next to our name and not theirs.
A great day all in all but we still need more control at times and please, please, please, please, please stop defending so bloody deep. But quite frankly if we can win games then I’ll let that pass.
One of forty six – the Swansea train is up and running again (remove tongue from cheek)
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