Planet Swans ArchivesThe Swans were new into the Premier League when they travelled to Shrewsbury for a Capital One Cup tie. They were beaten 3-1 by their lower division opposition on a bitterly disappointing night for the side that had already picked up some plaudits along the way after our arrival back in the top flight.
And Brendan uttered some words that evening that were absolutely spot on when he said “I have told the players to make sure they remember the Manchester City game, when they made their Premier League debuts, make sure they remember how well they played against Wigan. But don’t forget to tell their grandchildren that they played against Shrewsbury and lost. That is the reality. It shouldn’t happen.”
These are maybe words that Garry can use at this point in time. This season we have taken some great plaudits from wins against Manchester United and Arsenal but the players that took those plaudits should remember not just how well they played in those games but just how they played against Blackburn when they lost.
For me it is definitely not the fact that we have been beaten in the last two games but all about how easily we have allowed ourselves to be beaten. Chelsea are a good side and exploited every space that we elected to give them. Blackburn are nowhere near the class of Chelsea but we gave them the space and confidence that they wanted to know that they could beat us on the day.
This is a crunch time of the season for the Swans as we now only have the remaining 16 league games to look forward to. We have worked hard and played well to get us into the position we are in but it is time for the management to lift the players and remind them of the performances against the good teams – and how they feel – and never to forget the poor performances and how they feel after it.
The stupid mistakes we hear so much about need to disappear from the games and the players who we know can do the job need to prove that they can all over again.
This season is not a lost cause and I do not buy into the statements that we are about to drop into relegation trouble but I would rather this season be remembers for performances such as the first one rather than the last one.
