Phil SumblerA poor performance from the Swans at the Liberty this evening was not punished as a goal from Conor Hourihane was enough to earn us a point and lift us back into 2nd place in the table but it came on a night when we were very much second best to our promotion rivals.
Steve Cooper handed a league debut to Hourihane after his impressive start in the cup against Forest last weekend whilst there was a place on the bench for Jordan Morris another one of his recent signings. Ryan Bennett surprisingly dropped to the bench with Kyle Naughton starting whilst both Jamal Lowe and Andre Ayew came back into the starting line up as you would have anticipated.
A very cagey first twenty minutes of the game saw the Swans probably more on the back foot then we would have liked but they were being met by a very tight and organised Swans side who clearly had been told to close down the visitors which means that neither keeper were troubled in those opening exchanges.
Brentford were definitely now on the front foot and a couple of good chances missed the target when it looked like Woodman may be tested in the Swans goal and it did seem as if the Swans were set up at this stage very much to try not to lose the game as opposed to try and win it – a tactic that Steve Cooper adopted to good effect last season.
The Swans started to push forward a little more in the last ten minutes of the half as they slowly started to find space in midfield and Roberts and Bidwell were able to get forward having spent the first half hour very much in the defensive third. A reasonable chance for the Swans appeared to be spurned when Fulton and Lowe went for the same ball which Fulton touched when Lowe looked best placed.
Naughton was given a yellow card close to half time for bringing down his man just inside the Swans own half – the decision was the correct one given the distance between attacker and goal but – as ever – Thomas Franks appeared to have plenty to say about it shortly after the event. It was the last action of note of a tight first half where Brentford were probably slightly on top but the Swans – defending deep – were comfortable for the majority of the half.
The second half started with a similar pattern to the first with Brentford on the front foot but again not troubling Woodman with attempts on target but the Swans were their own worst enemies at times by giving possession way cheaply and often with poor distribution from the very back.
Woodman was called into action on the hour mark to make a sharp save from Dasilva just as it looked as if the visitors were to break the deadlock in the game and you could feel a collective sigh of relief from the Swans players who for once had allowed freedom in the defence and Brentford were good enough to use the space they were afforded.
You definitely had the feeling at this point that Brentford felt that the game was there for the taking and they continued to push forward and chances in the Swansea box were becoming more frequent and the Swans becoming more and more on the back foot as the clock ticked into the last quarter of the game.
The Swans task was made harder in the 68th minute when Kyle Naughton was shown a second yellow card for what can only be described as a needless challenge and foul. There are things that you cannot do when you have already been booked and sliding in is one of them and the referee was given the easiest decision of the night to produce the second yellow card which can only mean one thing.
Brentford looked to make the man advantage count and Toney had a header that looped over the bar and it was calling out at this stage for a change to be made in the line up as the Swans surely now were going to settle for the point that a performance to date had suggested we would have been happy with from the start.
The change though wasn’t coming and the Swans paid the price in the 75th minute when Brentford took the lead. What seemed to be a very poor ball into the area stayed in play and the Swans were caught cold as the ball back into the area was headed into the very corner of the net by substitute Fosu-Henry.
The Swans though were handed a strong bit of luck just a few minutes later when Hourihane scored his first goal for the club in quite unlikely circumstances. Having been awarded a free kick on the right hand side of the pitch Hourihane looked for a delivery into the six yard box that was missed by everyone including the visiting goalkeeper and found the back of the net. I am not sure that the Swans could believe their own luck that they were back level and it was difficult to even think that we deserved it.
It wasn’t enough though to make us push forward any more although at this stage of the game some of that was determined more by the fact that we were a man light due to the early departure of Kyle Naughton rather than anything else. Incredibly though it was the 90th minute before we made changes with Ryan Manning replacing Jamal Lowe as the game went into stoppage time – a stoppage time extended by the theatrics of Andre Ayew and opened by another Woodman clearance which found touch .
That said though the stoppage time period was pretty uneventful and you sensed that despite Brentford being the better side they were not ready to commit too many forward during this period with both sides understanding the importance of not losing a game.
As the game ended the five minutes of stoppage time the referee blew the whistle for full time and the Swans can certainly count themselves lucky to leave the Liberty with a point on what was a very poor performance. They do often say that the sign of a good team is getting results when not playing well, let’s hope after this evening this is very much the case for us!
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