Planet Swans ArchivesLee Trundle scored his 12th goal of the season to help maintain Swansea’s promotion charge with a 2-1 victory at Leyton Orient.
Brian Flynn’s side found themselves 2-0 up midway through the first half and never looked like dropping the points despite a late scare.
Trundle opened the scoring with a quality finish, driving the ball into the top corner after being set up by Kevin Nugent.
The forward returned the favour shortly after when his dangerous cross from the left wing allowed Nugent to power a header past goalkeeper Lee Harrison.
Orient attempted to fight back but failed to break down the City backline until moments before the final whistle.
Chris Tate’s excellent back-post header found its way over the line despite the efforts of Roger Freestone but the visitors held on through a spell of heavy pressure in injury-time.
Thoughts By Andy Donaghue
Firstly we should never complain when you get three points away from home so i won’t. we started well and looked well in control, great over head kick from trundle produced another 3 weeks worth for soccer A.M to open the scoring then great wing play by trundle produced a inch perfect cross for nugent to score at the far post. around 850 jacks celebrated but shortly after trundle gets injured.
the problem..
due to our severe injuries we had no reserve striker on the bench, robinson pushes up front giving us a different option.
the problem..
coates comes on left midfield with no effect first half and maybe in need of some match practice looked well off the pace.
conclusion…
losing trundle today our team shape fell apart , robinson worked his socks off so losing him in midfield was also a loss. we looked very ordinary second half and if we were playing anybody who wasn’t as poor as orient i think we might have caved in.
player ratings.
freestone – 9 looked solid throughout , took all his crosses.
duffy – 7 kept lockwood in check but some late challenges again
howard – 7 one of his better games, still passing could be better
o’leary -8 i’m not his greatest fan but he did well today
izzy – 8 shackled some pacy strikers
britton -5 lost the ball on numerous occasions,doesnt like it wide
wilson -6 you either get class or very average , today was the latter
johnrose -6 good job as the anchor role midfield,some silly
fouls though.
robinson – 9 great left midfield then then gave 100% up front.
nugent – 8 played a bit deeper than usual, held the ball up well.
trundle – 10 just for the cheek and class of the goal.
coates – 5 lets see if he improves with a few games.
Flynn reaction to Trundle injury (BBC Sport)
Swansea director of football Brian Flynn’s joy at his side’s 1-2 win away at Leyton Orient was tempered by the injury suffered by leading scorer Lee Trundle.
The tricky front man, an inspired summer signing from Wrexham, scored his 11th goal of the season at Orient before making Kevin Nugent’s strike, but limped off with medial ligament damage midway through the first half.
“On a first assessment, we think he (Trundle) will be out for a couple of weeks – we’re hoping it’s not more,” Flynn told BBC Sport Wales.
“We’ve been dealing with a string of injuries for the last six weeks, but the lads have been able to dig deep and grind out the results.
“I’m delighted with a 2-1 win away from home. We gave ourselves a great platform in the first half and defended well in the second.”
Flynn has further injury worries over striker James Thomas, last season’s leading scorer and a likely stand-in for Trundle.
“James trained all week, but his foot injury flared up again on Thursday,” said Flynn.
Report by Matthew Phillips
This was my second away game and I was not that confident of today. I was going for the 1-1 draw, we arrived at Brisbane Road about two hours before kick off and it was a really sunny day in Leytonstone.
The starting line-up was
Freestone
Howard O’Leary Iriekpen Duffy
Britton Wilson Johnrose Robinson
Trundle Nugent
Subs: Murphy, Jenkins, Smith, Coates, Jones R
The game kicked off with over 705 Jacks singing the Orient fans must have thought they were at an away game. Most of the early chances falling to Orient – a shot just wide, a good save from Roger and an early free kick that was cleared. About 2 minutes later [that’s what it seemed like anyway!] A knock down my Nugent (can’t really remember the build-up!) ball bouncing and does the best piece of skill I have seen him do since he’s been here (even better then the shoulder roll). He acrobatically does an overhead kick and goes into the net off the post. The Swans away following go MAD!!!!!! And Trundle, as always, came to celebrate in front of us. At first I have to say the ball looked at first to be going over, then just wide and took everyone bout 5 seconds to realize what a goal had a been scored.
A couple of minutes later Trundle has a run down the left, gets into the box and crosses with two players, Nugent and Robinson, in the box with no defenders around them and Nugent heads in to score against his former club. Then after cruising at 2-0 and looking like we could get more goals Trundle went off injured and Coates came on and Andy Robinson moving to the strikers position. Orient had a couple of chances before half-time and Duffy got booked for a challenge in which he won the ball fairly. At last it was half-time and I was hoping for a few more goals for us in the second half. Second half began but I can’t really remember what happened or in what order because Orient had chance, after chance after chance and they were trying everything to score but somehow couldn’t manage to put the ball in the net. Roger made some more good saves, defense cleared but it was more down to their strikers couldn’t score and open goal. We did have a couple of chances to finish Orient off, Robinson crossing brilliantly and Coates headed just wide and Coates being played in again and trying to round the keeper but he messed it up and the keeper smothered it, Coates maybe should have just lifted the ball over him then it would have been 3-0 match over.
At the end we were under more pressure and everyone wondered whether Orient would pull back for a draw. In the end though Orient only pulled one back, through Chris Tate, and al the Jacks went home happy!
Some points
Nice to see loads of support there, from SEALS, Official bus travel and whoever else was there. Great singing. Without Trundle yesterday we seemed a little bit lost I hope that doesn’t mean that we will start to lose games that he isn’t playing in. Why did our midfield and defense keep giving the ball back to them?
I’m glad I went to Orient. I really enjoyed, good job I didn’t go to Cardiff to watch the Wales game.
Ratings
Freestone = 8 – Didn’t make any mistakes I can think of. Made a few good saves.
Howard = 6 – Gave the ball away a few times.
O’Leary = 8 – Played quite well, very solid game.
Iriekpen = 7 -Played well against his former club, good on the floor, not so good in the air.
Duffy = 8 – Another good performance, didn’t make too many mistakes good and undeserved booking.
Britton = 7 – Made his usual good runs but kept falling over then Orient took the ball.
Wilson = 6 – You wouldn’t have thought he cost Middlesbrough £1.5 million, passes kept going to Orient, put too much on his kicks and his crosses weren’t that good.
Johnrose = 6 – Won his headers, Got a booking, maybe not deserved, gave the ball away too much.
Robinson = 9 – My MOTM. If Andy Robinson hadn’t have been playing then I’m sure we would have lost. He was SUPERB, ran after everything, played brilliantly. Find of the season I think personally.
Trundle = 8 – Scored one brilliant goal and set up Nugent’s. Then went off injured, hope he’s back for Saturday.
Nugent = 7 – Scored a good header against his old club but then kept being offside from free kicks in our own half and goal kicks.
Subs:
Coates = 5 – Really should have done better with his two chances. Gave away needless free-kicks. Not that impressive.
