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Sunday March 12 2006. The day that automatic promotion dream died and the day that maybe we did start to wonder whether
a. We would make the play offs b. We deserve to make the play offs
Quite simply this was a shabby Swansea performance that cam to life for five minutes after we scored having been pretty dull for the first 88 minutes. Although by that point we had spurned three great chances to score. The first question of the day has to be over the starting line up. We bring in Keith Lowe from Championship side Wolves because we need a centre back so we play him on the bench. Please run that one past me, I’m a little confused by the logic in it. As predicted, Rory Fallon was back in to partner Lee Trundle whilst captain Roberto Martinez was a starting spot in midfield – helped no doubt by the rumoured suspension to Kevin McLeod.
Gueret
Forbesy Tatey Monk Williams
Big Leon Roberto Way Robbo
LT10 Rory
Subs: Murphy, Little Leon, Bayo, Lowe, Sam
Swansea started bright enough and passed the ball around with some nice touches. Unfortunately nice touches do not win football matches and they were not going to come to fruition with anything substantial although LT10 did force a save from their keeper during the early exchanges.
We were soon enough a goal down though when Williams was adjudged to have fouled their man on their right hand side and was booked for dissent into the process. From the free kick, Swansea gave their customary two acres of space to the forward man who picked his spot with all the time he had to fire the visitors into the lead. One nil down. And we know that when we go a goal down whatever game plan we had goes out of the window. The nice passes were gone and the bulk of the play was long, high balls towards LT10 and Fallon with us not being overly choosy to which one we aimed.
On the rare occasions we kept the ball on the deck we looked dangerous and from one of these moves, Fallon somehow failed to open his account. LT10 found himself in acres of space in the middle of the field and he fed Robbo who in turn crossed for Fallon who somehow managed to screw his shot wide from two yards out. Robbo himself could have equalised but saw his shot head back off the post and Leon headed over the rebound. Walsall for their part were threatening a second – usually with some help from us and both Monk and Tate had to intercept goal bound shots which simply didn’t have the power after Willy was twice caught hopelessly out of position.
A goal down at half time and the pleasant shock was the introduction of Leon Knight in place of Leon Britton. With three strikers on the pitch, it looked as if it would be 4-3-3 with the Swans throwing their all into get a result. Wrong. Knight, a striker, lined up on the right wing, just ahead of Forbes, a right sided midfielder, at right back. Why, please tell me. Answers on a postcard?
Swansea threatened a little more in the second half but for all their effort there was little in the way of clear cut chances. Fallon’s header was deflected over in his last action before being swapped for Bayo, at the same time that Ricketts came on for Forbes. Ricketts first effort was to completely miss a header from a ball that came from so high it had snow on it whilst Bayo linked well with Trundle as we know he does. However, this was not an afternoon for LT10 who looked not fully fit and was reasonably easily covered by the Walsall defence.
With Walsall always looking dangerous on the break a second probably looked more likely than an equaliser as the Swans conceded possession cheaply on more than one occasion as the 90 minutes loomed. That was before Bayo hit a deflected shot that wrong footed the keeper and looped into the net – the Swans were level – somehow.
And that spurred them on to their best five minutes of the game. Nice passing, interchanges and movement saw them create more in the last five minutes than they had done in the previous 88. Bayo could have scored again but saw his shot saved by the keeper whilst Martinez, Knight and Robinson also went close in this period. A winner would have been a travesty though and at 1-1 automatic promotion was a distant dream and it is now very much a step up needed to ensure the play offs. We remain unbeaten now in 7 league games but this is 5 draws on the bounce league wise and that simply is not good enough.
Brentford Friday which will be a tougher test and that in itself worries me.
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