Phil SumblerSaturday. Matchday. For so long this season a day where expectations were high, Swans wins were more frequent than not and more than just parts of us were dreaming of Premier League football again next season and all the riches that came with it.
Replace it with the past few weeks in particular and Saturdays have been about watching a team that has lost it’s way, watching a team that looks devoid of any plan or pattern to it’s play and about watching a team that has rapidly slipped away from challenging for the top two and now is more likely to challenge to finish seventh.
Watford’s win last night over Reading was good news for us. Whilst it means the Hornets are now 13 points ahead of us with just 21 left for us to play for it keeps Reading 3 points behind and we have 2 games in hand. Of course many will say that the games in hand mean nothing the way that we are playing which I understand but at the same time surely we will eventually pick up enough points to cross the play off line even if we stumble over it on the last day of the season capitalising on the celebratory hangovers in Watford!
Anyway as nerves go on play off places they will be worse in Reading this morning compared to Swansea and maybe that will be the boost that the team need to go out and put in a performance at Millwall in the live lunchtime game. The least they owe us, as fans, at the moment is a performance. I still believe that a performance at the moment is more important than the result or at least could produce more confidence for the games to come.
There will be six left to play today and a performance will say that we can perform well in those, a win could be gained by a fortunate equaliser akin to the one Preston scored on Monday evening and may not (although granted it could) have the same effect. Oh stuff it, as I write I change my mind and give me the lucky winner off someone’s arse at the moment three points is more important than anything.
It would be a disaster if we didn’t reach the play offs this season. Had you asked me that in August before the season started I am not sure I would have said that but from the position we got ourselves into at the start of February, and even the start of March for that matter, it would be a disaster. At that point play offs for us and Brentford were looking assured but the form of those below and both of us currently suggest that it certainly isn’t assured but let’s also remember it is ours to lose.
Morgan Whittaker tried yesterday to sum up the feeling in the camp when he said “When we score our next goals, I just know that the goals will flow from there.
“If you doubt yourself and change this and that, I don’t think that helps things.
“We know the results haven’t been good, but we will go into games knowing that we are a good team and that we will turn the results around.”
The issue for fans is that for the past few weeks most of the words have been similar and, sadly for us, so have the performances. We are in a downward cycle and at the moment it is not a case of us not being able to stop it the performances almost suggest that we don’t know how to change it. Last Friday at Birmingham was awful and then Monday was just as bad, and for many worse, as we went the ninety minutes without testing the keeper. On a day when we wanted to show what we were made of.
The message for the players should be clear. You want to stand up and be counted so go out there, stand up, be counted and show us what you are made of. Do the same today as you have done for the past few games and the result will be the same. And the game will be very difficult to watch because, frankly, many of the last few games have been exceptionally hard watching to even stay awake through.
So let’s see what you are made of and let’s get those three points. But unlike the majority of these Saturday games this comes from a position of hope rather than expectation. And we can all cling to hope that the play offs are there.
The game at the Den will kick off at 12.30pm and is live on Sky Sports.
Swans fans are not confident ahead of the game as the results in our matchday poll suggest – why not check them out and share your thoughts ahead, during and after the match in our matchday thread here
