Rob DaviesPerhaps it’s a little bit of papering over some cracks at Swansea but the comeback win at Peterborough will lift confidence after a topsy turvy game at the Championship’s bottom club.
Michael Obafemi opened the scoring in first half stoppage time finishing past former Swan David Cornell before Peterborough launched a second half fight back.
The Posh equalised through Sammy Sczmodics after some weak defending before Kyle Naughton’s woeful clearance was pounced on by Jack Marriott who sent the home fans wild in the prospect of a first win in fifteen.
But in Obafemi and Piroe, the Swans have two quality forwards and they delivered where it matters; the former with the equaliser and the latter with an injury time finish to take three points back to South Wales.
For a while it looked like the same old pony from Russell Martin’s men but they stood up and responded when it mattered to rise to 15th in the table.
The Swans boss made one alteration to the line up from Saturday’s loss at Blackpool with Hannes Wolf – as expected – returning to the fold in place of Olivier Ntcham.
Fisher
Christie – Cabango – Naughton – Wolf
Smith – Downes – Grimes
Piroe – Obafemi – Paterson
Low on confidence and winless in fourteen, there was little science required to predict the flow of this game with Swansea dominating possession and creating a few opportunities although none you’d describe as clear cut.
Piroe was denied by a fingertip save from Cornell – deputising for Steven Benda who was unable to play against his parent club – whilst Paterson caused a few issues down the left side with little end product.
What was clear is that the central midfield trio of Smith-Downes-Grimes is far too defensive (and we still conceded two) and offers next to nothing in a forward momentum.
It’s particularly baffling when Smith is used as the roaming playmaker when he has failed to score in his near two years at the club and has six goals in near 350 league appearances. But I’m not the manager…
Back to the match and Obafemi was keen to get the attention of Ireland manager Stephen Kenny after rejecting the opportunity to play for the national team’s U21 squad.
He’d looked threatening earlier on but made his point as the clock ticked over into first half stoppage time when he peeled away from his marker from Jamie Paterson’s through ball and despite a sloppy first touch buried past the oncoming Cornell.
That should have sapped the confidence from the hosts going into the second half but the trademark Swansea collapse arrived after taking the lead.
Kyle Naughton received an early second half caution as the Posh sought to press high and hard on the Swans and they soon were back on level terms.
The impressive winger Ricky Jade Jones had Cyrus Christie on toast for much of the match and he got to the byline before his low cross to the back post was slotted in by Sczmodics.
If the first half was comfortable for Russell Martin, this was anything but and the next goal probably summed up a lot of the frustration with our team this season.
With Peterborough pressing high, Cabango and Naughton got into a mess inside the six yard box and when a clearance was needed, Naughton decided to play out but straight to Marriott who gleefully accepted the gift to turn the game on its head.
Swansea clearly upped the tempo thereafter but the question was why did it take that long as so often it requires the opposition to score for Martin’s team to respond.
Paterson began to control things in midfield and his forward running caused the conference sapped opposition many issues and it was his wicked cross to the back post that Christie looked to have headed home.
His effort bounced back off the post but it was Obafemi who was on his toes to fire in at the back post from the rebound to bring relief to the manager and the traveling fans.
Ntcham had made a big difference replacing Smith and his quality showed when his blocked shot set up the dramatic winner.
He drove in from the right side before his effort bounced through to Piroe and as you would expect the stronger finished with aplomb on his left foot to break the hearts of the Peterborough fans and earn what was probably a deserved win.
There are still plenty of questions about this team and management. How we went from a strong position to losing against what was a poor Peterborough team is anybody’s guess and there still isn’t sufficient enough progress to suggest that we are getting to wherever we are supposed to be heading.
Tonight we climb to 15th ahead of Saturday’s game against Birmingham City at home where a performance is needed as much as the result.
It’s been a very mixed season at best but it’s about time that Martin started to repay the faith shown in him by delivering in performance and results as whilst tonight is some relief, cracks remain that are a bit too glaring to ignore.
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