Planet Swans ArchivesWhere can we start? Well just to give you a flavour. ‘Top of the league, you’re having a laugh’ Might as well end there but need to say a bit more. Admittedly we have players out at the moment, and they are key players. That does not excuse the performance tonight. We were looking to go top, well check the league table as this performance fell well, well short of what is required and what is expected.
But hey we started the brighter of the two teams, and for the first 15mins or so were very comfortable without really being a threat. We did actually score a goal, but disallowed, for what don’t know as it was at the far end and many players in the area as the ball went in. Maybe at that point we might have deserved to be in the lead, not for what we had done, but for what Mansfield had not. They had offered very little and looked a poor team. The referee was abysmal, to start with he seemed to favour us, but as the game progressed the pendulum swung with decisions going in favour of Mansfield. He did not let the game flow and seemed to be going for the world record for the number of whistle blows in 90mins. The boring first half was luckily coming to an end, but the one good move of the game brought Mansfield their goal. Good passing down their left allowed a cross to reach Barker on the edge of the area mid goal. Three defenders seemed to watch as if in slow motion the ball reached him, and with what was the only clean strike on goal saw the ball whistle into the back of the net. Good goal.
Well were a better second half team aren’t we? The game continued into mediocrity until suddenly coming to life. Monk made a mistake and a Mansfield player was through on goal only to see Monk recover and put in a brilliant tackle and come away with the ball.
Was our luck about to change? Forget it, within minutes Monk had been booked twice and off he went. The second booking could be classed as harsh but do you give an inept referee the chance? It looked all over at this point as Mansfield made use of the extra man. Murphy although was not threatened as possession was not made to count with attempts on goal. Then came another bizarre moment as we think Britton tackled a player near the corner flag. The player must have reacted as there was a melee which saw their player sent off. The game from this point came to life with an edge to it. Thorpe and Maylett replaced Anderson and Connor as we then looked too get something from the game. Although better it was still not good enough with again any threat on goal. We had about 5mins from the end where we applied some pressure but it was too little too late, and again apart from a Maylett shot that he took an age deciding to shoot ( maybe it was the fans shouting ‘shoot’ that made his mind up for him) flashing just past the post we never looked like scoring.
Man of the match. Murphy as he did nothing wrong (had very little to do all night). Maybe this sounds harsh and critical but tonight we saw two poor sides. The difference being Mansfield wanted the win more than us. Excuses can be used. As said earlier we had key players out. The referee stopped the game every few seconds It was the wrong kind of grass Reality says we did not play as a team, the will to win was not there. Indiscipline crept in as the game went on. Not in bad tackles etc but in spending more time winging and mouthing off to officials. Maybe deserved but took the focus off trying to win the game. This might be totally over the top, but we saw nothing tonight to be positive about. Maybe a good sleep will temper our thoughts, but a good sleep will not change the fact that we blew it tonight.
At least one thing made me smile, but not Gareth. For all the ‘Same old English’ chant we dish out. We got it back tonight ‘Same old Swansea, always cheating’, maybe I was just ready to laugh or cry
REPORT: CLIVE AND GARETH HUGHES
