Much has been written the last few weeks about the vital first home league win of the season. Many pundits said that it mattered not whether it was a distinguished performance or a scrappy win and this was – without doubt – the latter but it is the three points that count at the end of the day and it was Paulo Sousa who had them tucked in his pocket by the end of the 6 minutes of stoppage time.
Lee Trundle’s penalty and Tom Butler’s goal came either side of Stephen Quinn’s goal for the visitors on an afternoon when both Jordi Lopez and Nathan Dyer saw red for two bookable offences.
All the second half action sparked into life what was a reasonably dull affair between a typical Sheffield United side and – for the large part – a Swansea side that looked disjointed and hampered by an early injury to Ferrie Bodde in his first league start for 10 months.
As has become the norm, Paulo sprung a surprise in his team selection electing to play Ashley Williams in midfield as well as Ferrie in for that elusive first start leaving a line up as follows
Dorus
Rangel Monk Tate Bessone
Dyer Lopez Williams Bodde Gower
Pintado
The game was less than ten minutes old when Swansea were dealt their first blow of the afternoon. Ferrie had already seemed uncomfortable after his first tackle of the afternoon when he went down under his second and immediately signalled to the bench his discomfort. Despite hobbling to his feet he was soon replaced after a debate on the touchline by Lee Trundle much to the delight of the Evening Post reporters.
Trundle slotted into the midfield as Paulo elected not to revert t a 4-4-2 formation – that was something he was to save for later on in the game. The Swans were on the back foot at this point and a succession of Sheffield United corners were broken by brief periods of play of which Nathan Dyer seemed to be at the heart of all of them. His stinging shot was palmed away by the visiting keeper in a rare shot on goal moment in the opening 45 minutes where both keepers remained relatively untroubled.
Half time coming and going bought no more changes but the Swans were handed an early boost in the second half. Trundle was bought down by Montgomery in the vistors penalty area and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Trundle himself picked himself up and sent the keeper the wrong way before indulging in a session of badge grabbing and kissing to show his obvious pleasure at opening his account in his second spell at the club.
The Swans were ahead and primed for pushing home their advantage although they almost immediately sat on the back foot and allowed what had been a pretty ineffective Sheffield United side to come at them. Eleven men behind the ball at every set piece meant that clearances were almost always shored up by the Blades and they could come back at the Swans.
A goal had already been chalked out for offside and Lopez had received the first of his bookings for diving in by the time the visitors equalised. A cross come shot was backheeled in by Quinn who celebrated with the vigour that many of his protests in the first half had shown. One each and the visitors had the upper hand at this point.
Lopez then appeared to hand them another advantage minutes later when he dived in again giving the referee no choice but to show the second of two yellow cards which can only mean one thing -a red card for the Swansea midfielder. His protests were wasted and – in truth – he could not really argue either card – a fact demonstrated by the lack of appeal against the decision.
But there was a further twist in the tale to come. Williams – who by this time had reverted to centre back thanks to the loss of Bessone – continued an impressive display with a burst down the left wing of all places. He looked hell bent on going the whole distance before he found Tom Butler who drilled a low 25 yard shot in off the post and to give the Swans the lead. 2-1 and this was surely heading towards the victory we so desperatley needed?
Having survived the 8 minutes since Butler’s goal, the 10 man Swans could have done without the 6 extra minutes the fourth official signalled and they could have done even more without the second of the afternoon’s red cards. A free kick to Sheffield United saw them place the ball in the incorrect spot and Dyer’s kick to the correct spot was deemed as unsporting behaviour and he saw his second yellow of the afternoon. The right decision? Sadly, it probably was although it seemed a little pedantic at the time.
But this was to be the Swans afternoon and they hung onto claim a vital victory which moved them up to 17th place – leaving some daylight between them and the bottom three places in the division.
Is this a corner turned? Only time will tell but at this moment in time they are three very welcome points that gives us something on which we can hopefully build.
