Planet Swans ArchivesYeovil fans can sing “That’s Why We Are Champions” as much as they like and the truth was we saw a game that does explain why they were champions last season. League Two is supposed to be up and at em and that is what we saw today as both sides decided the long ball game was the effective way to play. Yeovil being much more effective at it then we were.
It also begs the question why we sunk to that level. We had got to the top of the division through playing passing football not taking the direct route on a day when our ‘powerful win balls in the air’ striker was suspended. The mind really does boggle.
With the loss of Ricketts, who played in Wales 3-2 win in Belfast, Bayo and Macca, Jackett recalled the fit again Adrian Forbes, Garry Monk and Andy Robinson into his starting line up as the Swans looked to make it 9 unbeaten in the league.
Willy
Tatey Monk Izzy Kev
Leon Bean Roberto Robbo
Forbesy Trunds
Subs: Murphy, Nuge, Freezer, KOL, Anderson
Maybe the name of Nuge on the bench shows how little strength we have in depth in attack and most definitely something we need to rectify before the season is too much older.
Don’t get me wrong on this report, I don’t want to go into too much detail or be too critical. We haven’t become a bad side overnight and we are more than capable of coming back from this but this was a game that was there to be won. And I firmly believed had we played it the way that we can then maybe we could have won it. Maybe that is a dis-service to Yeovil who perhaps stopped us playing the way we wanted to I don’t know but there we are.
The first half was pretty much a non-entity as far as we were concerned. Leon came close with a deflected shot but that was as far as our attacking ‘prowess’ got us on the day. Trunds was effectively shackled by the effective Skiverton whilst the patently unfit Forbes made Sodje look more like John Terry such was the ease to deal with him. Indeed, a better indication of how unfit Forbes was was given in the second half when Nuge got more change out of the green headed one than Forbes.
In midfield, the impressive Britton and Martinez we have seen in recent weeks were less than impressive and Robinson really didn’t look half as effective as he does coming on during a game. However, had we moved him into the centre then maybe it may have been a different story. I will say little about Bean’s performances – he impresses me less each game.
At the back we looked comfortable enough even against the elbows of Harrold but lacked movement on the left hand side with Austin just not being a left back.
Skiverton grabbed the only goal of the game when the rest of our defence watched Sodje and he fired a clear header past Willy and into the back of the net and for ten minutes Yeovil harried us superbly to such an extent that 1-0 down at the interval was actually something was happy with.
Jackett wasn’t though and Robbo and Forbes were hauled off to be replaced by Nuge and Goodfellow. The arrival of Nuge surely could only mean long ball and so it proved. He won a few headers but got little support and the Swans were a disjointed team.
The game was developing into poor passing from both sides and the endless whistle of Premiership referee Dermot Gallagher who blew, blew and blew some more. Britton picked up a deserved booking as did Tate and Martinez before the game was out. Nuge got stood on, hobbled off and on came Anderson who actually changed the game. Before he got there, Swansea were getting possession, once he got on he balanced the book by continually passing to the opposition. Please don’t do it to us again Kenny, it’s not fair!
Freezer had a shot as did a couple of others but the reality was that the better side were coasting home despite being a poor side on the day themselves.
We will bounce back from this and we need to do it with a good performance. If today achieves anything it should be to prove to the lads that we cannot play the long ball game, I’m just thankful that it has taken 13 games this season to come up against a side intent on playing it against us.
A disappointing day for the 1500 travelling Jacks but at least I got a laugh when stuck in the endless queues out of Yeovil, next to me was a van proudly proclaiming the words “Yeovil Town FC Traffic Management Van” Comedy genius at it’s best. Ronnie Barker would have been so proud.
