Planet Swans ArchivesYou could have been forgiven for assuming that we had done all the hard work after we turned a two goal half time deficit into a one goal lead before the referee decided Wayne Routledge had handled the ball deliberately and Charlie Adam gladly stepped up to take a point back to the Britannia Stadium.
It ended an exciting game at the Liberty where the Swans could have been commended highly for their second half performance that looked as if it would have secured the win that they deserved after sloppily given the visitors a two goal lead thanks to two defensive lapses.
The reaction I think of both sets of players to the penalty decision said much as Stoke never really seemed to appeal whilst the Swans reaction tends to suggest that it was harsh. The TV replays should be interesting later on but it looked on first glance to be an awful decision which we hope doesn’t come back to haunt us.
Stoke had literally been gifted a two goal head start by the Swans in the first half as first Jonathan Walters and then Stephen Ireland ghosted through a static Swansea defence to slot the ball past Tremmel to give them a two goal lead. For a side that is struggling to score goals we shouldn’t be helping themselves but it looked too easy for Stoke as they created the chances with ease to open up that advantage.
Swans record signing Wilfried Bony spurned their best chances of the first half. First he was presented with a clear chance on goal thanks to a stray back pass but he telegraphed his run to go past the keeper and the ball was easily knocked away whilst just minutes later he was unable to connect fully with a header and the chance went wide as the Swans reached the half two goals down.
2-0 probably did flatter the visitors at that time and so I guess it was probably no surprise that the Swans heads had not dropped too much despite some of the boos that rung out from some areas at half time. These though were soon drowned out by applause and the Swans started the second half brightly.
It was though the introduction of Nathan Dyer ten minutes into the second half which changed the game. Just a minute after his arrival he had already worried the Stoke defence although it was Jonathan De Guzman who crossed the ball for Bony to head home and bring the home crowd to their feet. At this point you always felt that Stoke were there for the taking and the Swans pushed on with Dyer almost setting up Bony not long afterwards as the Swans went in search of an equaliser.
The Swans by now were pressing at every opportunity and it was Dyer who got the equaliser with 15 minutes to go when his shot into the ground bounced up and past the keeper to bring the Swans level and Stoke heads dropped just a little more.
There were always more goals in the game and the Swans pushed on looking for the winner which seemed to have come when Bony turned home Shelvey’s cross with less than five minutes left to give the Swans the lead that should have been enough until the referee intervened towards the end,
Some big positives today included naturally the way we fought back from the two goal deficit and some really strong individual performances. Negatives will automatically be the way we let Stoke cut us apart twice in the first half and I have to add that Chico’s play acting is becoming more embarrassing by the game and he rightfully was booked today for it. Cut it out, really no need.
Summarising we were robbed at the end but we would have taken a point at half time but we deserved to win overall given the nature of the performance in the second half.
