Planet Swans ArchivesI guess that back in the summer when the fixture lists were released, the visit of Nottingham Forest was one that people looked for purely because, maybe through hope rather than expectation, we hoped it would be the proverbial promotion six pointer.
That was seven months ago and Forest arrived at the Liberty top of the table and pushing hard for the Championship whilst Swansea fans live in the hope that somewhere we may see a kick start to our season which doesn’t even really appear to have got moving despite sitting on the edge of the play off zone.
With Rory Fallon departed for different shores in Plymouth it was back to the tried and tested forward pairing of Lee Trundle and Bayo Akinfenwa for the Swans with Richard Duffy also included for a second home debut for the club whilst Alan Tate continued to deputise for Darren Pratley in the centre of midfield. Andy Robinson, fit again, had to be content with a place on the bench as Tom Butler kept his place in the starting line up.
Big Willy
Duffy Den Kev Williams
Leon Tatey Craney Butler
Bayo LT10
Subs: Howard, Robbo, Izzy, Jones, Allen
The crowd – a season best 16,849 – were treated to what was an entertaining game although clear cut chances were few and far between. What did come along saw Swansea have the best of them but Smith in the Forest goal was always up to them whilst at the other end it was more a couple of half chances that dropped to Forest which never really tested Willy although he was in the mood for dramatising saves that came his way.
The first chance of the game dropped to Leon Britton who found himself bearing down on goal after some typical neat interplay from Swansea that involved Bayo. However, Britton’s well struck shot was saved by the legs of Smith and it rebounded to safety as the Liberty found it’s voice.
Forest’s best chance of the first half came about after some hesitation on the ball from Lawrence that saw Agogo nick the ball and race clear on goal but an advancing Willy was equal to the move and he saved sharply at the feet of the pacy striker Going forward with Tyson, Holt and Agogo there always looked the chance that Forest could break but the once again excellent Kevin Austin was more than an equal to them on pretty much every occasion.
As half time loomed Ian Craney forced a good save from Smith with a shapr shot from outside the area but it would have been a slight injustice had we led at the interval – these were two sides that were reasonably well matched. Well, for this afternoon at least – the league table currently doesn’t reflect that.
The second half I felt was a more open affair with again Forest seemingly thinking that their pace up front could catch us out and it did once when Kev dragged back Tyson to earn a booking and a second time when Duffy felled Holt but incredibly avoided a booking for the foul.
Swansea didn’t seem so potent themselves as an attacking force in the second half and half chances from Butler and Trundle were all we could muster until Smith produced the save of the match from a Bayo header with just seven minutes left on the clock. The game had goalless written all over it.
Jackett gambled on just one chance – Robbo for Butler – but it was to no avail as the Swans were handed plenty of possession but there was no real end product to it.
We knew that the sale of Fallon would increase the need for a striker and that is no difference on today’s performance. With 11 days remaining of the transfer window we need to move quickly and in a perfect world someone before Gillingham would be nice – but the likelihood would be that someone ahead of the league game after that is much more likely
So from a must win game I suppose that we can take heart that we didn’t lose but then again we didn’t win either. Maybe on the evidence of the 90 minutes we may just about have deserved to win but then again maybe we shouldn’t be surprised to see a blank on the scoreboard. So many surprises and yet none at all really.
Tuesday night and Gillingham next, the wrong result there and unthinkably we will start slipping further and further away from the play off zone. And that just wasn’t in the script.
