Pritchard Stakes Claim

Pritchard Stakes His Claim

WALES ON SUNDAY

ROOKIE striker Mark Pritchard staked his claim for a first-team spot as he helped Swansea City rediscover their goal-scoring touch with an impressive hat-trick.

The 18-year-old youth team star struck twice in the first-half, including one from the penalty spot, and added a third after the break to keep the Vetch Field club’s unbeaten pre-season campaign going.

Brad Maylett claimed the fourth goal as a youth-orientated side gave Swans boss Kenny Jackett plenty to think about on the eve of the new campaign.

A catalogue of injuries and a desire to rest some of his top players had led Jackett to field an inexperienced team, but he will nonetheless take encouragement from the fact Swansea created a bucket load of chances against their non-league opponents.

Particularly after he had lamented his side’s shyness in front of goal in recent matches, the previous three warm-up clashes having failed to yield a single goal from open play.

After stumbling to successive 1-1 draws in the opening matches of their Dutch tour against Den Haag and Stormvogels Telstar, Swansea finally found top gear, even if few of those who started the match will feature in the season’s curtain-raiser against Northampton on Saturday.As for Pritchard, he faces a struggle to get into Jackett’s first-choice XI with Lee Trundle, Paul Connor, Adrian Forbes, James Thomas, Kevin Nugent and new recruit Dennis Oli all above him in the striking pecking order.

But Jackett believes the youngster from Tredegar can still play a big part next term.

"I think he can do something in the first-team next season," he said. "There might be a few people in front of him in the queue, but you can never have enough good strikers – especially when injuries and suspensions start kicking in.

"Mark’s an out-and-out goalscorer. Whatever he does in and around the box, he’s able to get a shot in.

"He’s only a small lad and the Football League is very physical, but if he’s in the team and we create chances for him, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he puts them away."

Jackett was also pleased with the contribution made yesterday by youth team products like Jamie Rewbury, Kevin Davies and Antonio Corbisiero as well as the trio of youngsters – Lee Surman, Steve Evans and Matthew Roberts – who only flew out to link up with the squad on Friday night.

"I need to take a look at these players in a first-team context and this match gave me another good chance to do that," said Jackett, whose side face Dutch First Division side Haarlem in the final match of the trip today.

"You’ve got to take into account that the opposition weren’t that strong, but this was nonetheless a very useful training exercise for us."

Preparations had been disrupted by an injury crisis that Jackett hopes will have eased in time for the start of Swansea’s League Two campaign.Vetch hot-shot Trundle – battling to shake off a knee problem – is the most high-profile member of Swansea’s walking wounded brigade and remains the biggest doubt for Northampton’s visit.

It was partly because Swansea were missing so many key players that Maylett and keeper Brian Murphy were the only established senior players in the starting line-up yesterday.

Former Burnley winger Maylett should have put the Swans 1-0 up after just three minutes when he latched onto a ball over the top from Evans only to aim his shot straight at the keeper.

Six minutes later Maylett was in the thick of the action once more, producing a fierce low drive which the Noordwijk No 1 parried and then grasped.

On the 20-minute mark, the Swans slipped behind when an Evans clearance struck Jamie Rewbury and the ball fell kindly to Bram Meurs. The midfielder fed striker Niels Schoonen down the inside left channel who slotted coolly past Murphy.

But Swansea were level after 34 minutes when Roberts was chopped down inside the area by Jeffrey de Vries and Pritchard did the rest from the spot. Maylett atoned for his earlier rustiness when he slotted home Swansea’s second after racing on to a perfectly-weighted long ball from Stuart Jones.

Two minutes before half-time Pritchard grabbed his second when he raced onto a poor back pass, stole the ball off the keeper and curled it into an empty net. It was one-way traffic in the second-half as the impressive Pritchard went in search of his hat-trick.

It arrived in the 65th minute when he picked up a loose ball and curled a low effort in off the woodwork.

Substitute Andy Robinson went close with a smart half-volley, Evans hit the crossbar and Pritchard saw another effort cleared off the line as Swansea romped to a victory cheered on by a strong following off travelling fans.

Swansea City: Murphy, Jones, Rewbury, Surman, Davies, Corbisiero, Fisken (Robinson, 63), Evans, Maylett (Thomas, 63), Pritchard. Goals: Pritchard (35 (pen), 43, 65), Maylett (36)

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