Swansea City 0-2 Coventry City – Shapeless, spineless and hopeless

Swansea City are a club seemingly in a freefall to relegation.   A series of hapless displays was added to by arguably the worst of the lot this afternoon as a distinctly average Coventry City side ran out easy victors on what could be a very significant afternoon for the immediate Swansea City future.

The pressure is very much on Luke Williams and his continued tenure in SA1 after a sixth defeat in seven games so far in 2025 added to the miserable start to the new year for the Swans boss who could now find himself very much on borrowed time in the Swansea hot seat with his side having achieved just three goals in those seven games which has now yielded five straight defeats.

After a dismal January, Swans fans would have been hopeful that February could see them turn the corner but after the sale of captain Matt Grimes this week – ironically to today’s opponents – it was anything but the turning of a corner for the side who were second best throughout, managing just one shot on target in the ninety minutes – a Ronald header that was relatively easily dealt with by the visiting keeper.

The Swans were grateful to our own keeper, Lawrence Vigouroux, for keeping the score down to two goals as it could easily have been more and the boos that could be heard at both half-time and full-time were deserved after a pretty spineless performance from everyone in a white shirt.

The absence of Grimes in the Swans shirt is not something that we have had to deal with much since relegation to  the Championship but it was the start of the new era today and Luke Williams changed to a back three to make up for the lack of the midfielder dropping back to support the defence.   That meant a return to the side for Cyrus Christie who slotted in alongside new captain Ben Cabango and Hannes Celcroix who was making his home debut.

The Swans started in typical Swans fashion – slow – and Coventry were quick to assert themselves on the game as they pushed forward early and the Swans were very much on the back foot from the off.   If the criticism aimed at Matt Grimes was that he slowed the play down then he would have been delighted to see us move even slower in the first half with seemingly no player ready to look for space or even show for the ball when it mattered.

It was also noticeable that the long ball was in use much more often but at no point did that pose any threat to Coventry and – more often than not it seemed to end with the raising of a flag for offside, something that certainly was  big bear from today’s performance and our inability to actually watch the line that we were trying to break down.

Coventry’s first goal arrived inside twenty minutes as Ellis Sims opened the scoring.   It was a typical easy goal against a defence that has become more and more generous as the season wears on.   Sims made good running on the right, fed Thomas-Asante before finding himself on the end of the return ball and as his first touch lifted the ball off the ground, his second was volleyed into the back of the net to send the visiting supporters into celebration with an audible groan from the home support.  That is, of course, the home supporters who were there in a very sparce Swansea.com Stadium which was occupied by certainly a far lower crowd than the fifteen thousand odd official number.   Indeed, you could even draw an assumption that there was under 10,000 there in total or certainly would have been if it wasn’t for that travelling support that was a good number.

The goal did not spur the Swans into any sort of reaction though with the disjointed nature of the performance becoming more and more obvious as the Swans failed to control any aspect of the game and, even more annoyingly failed to even control the ball on many occasions.   There was the odd glimpse of a good cross or the good potential of a move but it was often broken down with ease due to a lack of white shirts showing for the ball.

If the first goal was easy the second was opportunistic.   Franco surrendered the ball with ease in midfield and it was Thomas-Asante who took advantage of Vigouroux being off his line and his shot went over his head and nestled into the back of the net.  The game was effectively over ad we had not reached the halfway mark.

The worst part about the first half is the Swans are generally better in the first half but this time it was not to be and whilst the second half was probably on a part with the first in terms of the Swans performance it was a performance overall that got exactly what it deserved on the day – absolutely nothing.

Four second half changes came predictably with two on the hour and two on seventy-five minutes but each of them was equally ineffective although the bright spot was the return of Ollie Cooper into the Swans midfield but it is such a shame that he is coming into a side that seems so devoid of confidence, style and more importantly a plan that they seem capable of executing.

Coventry could – and in reality probably should – have added to their lead but they were met with some desperate challenges in the Swans end whilst at the other end a Franco and Cullen shot that went over the bar was as close as we came to making the keeper work and the empty seats were fast increasing around the Swansea.com Stadium as the game entered its last fifteen minutes.   The worrying part is this run of form and performances is coming at the time of season ticket renewal and it is difficult to see a stampede for next season’s tickets particularly when you consider that the club is divebombing at an alarming rate.  The thought of relegation has certainly not been banished in recent weeks in SA1 and the bottom three are now closer to the Swans – both in terms of position and points – than the top six that was a brief hope just a few short weeks ago.

What we now face is a massive few days for the Swans before the transfer window closes on Monday.   We went into this window at least three of four faces short and that has now increased due to the recent departures from SA1.   The fact that we claimed planning went into this window is laughable as yet again Andy Coleman has failed to deliver on any of the words that come out of his mouth but he seems to have been somewhat protected this month by the actions (and results) delivered by Luke Williams together with the departure of Matt Grimes which deflected much of the discussion away from the actual football this week.

Coleman may decide that he will remove Williams from his job but it won’t change much as he is overseeing a car crash of a season that is turning out to be worse than last one and that was bad enough.  Under his stewardship we are delivering multiple underwhelming transfer windows and hiding behind the excuses of FFP and P&S rules whilst the reality is he has a total inability to run a football club with any effect and has certainly shown himself to be out of his depth on more than one occasion.   The recent run of results is almost certain to cost Williams his job at some point in the near future but Coleman must shoulder an equal, or actually greater, share of the blame as the fall out of yet another managerial departure will just see Coleman take on the hunt for another manager and we know that hasn’t ended well in the past.

So with a little over forty-eight hours left of the transfer window and a clear week now before the next fixture at Bristol City we wait for the major decisions from the club that will shape our immediate future.   And those decisions will involve the securing of any transfer targets and the decision as to whether they will use available funds to secure those signings or to pay off yet another manager highlighting just the ineptitude that goes on behind the scenes at a club that used to pride itself as being “not just another football club”

All eyes now look to Andy Coleman and his next moves but remember we judge him by his actions.   Or as many would say by his inactions.

A dreadful day at the office.

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