Planet Swans ArchivesRoy Hodgson looked back on the Baggies defeat to the Swans and declared his side in a vicious circle
Hodgson said after the game
“It’s an all too familiar story,” said Hodgson, whose team remain in 15th place but are now six points above the relegation zone.
“We keep giving ourselves a chance and getting into good situations and then when we come to play at home in front of our own crowd we disappoint them by not being able to get a result.
“It’s a vicious circle that can only be broken by us getting a result – and we don’t seem capable of doing it.
“When we took the lead I thought this is maybe going to be a situation where we would get a result.
“But it only lasted a minute and then you suddenly find yourself 2-1 down and it’s a familiar pattern.
“In the last 20 minutes we worked very hard, took a few chances, and got the ball into the opponent’s penalty area often.
“The ball bounced around and there were chances but we didn’t take them.
“In particular Peter’s miss from such close range.
“Those misses are very, very crucial.
“If he’d have scored it we might have been saying we’re perfectly happy with our day’s work.
“But he didn’t, and once again we all go home extremely unhappy, dissatisfied and downhearted.
“The games against Stoke and Fulham lift you up and give you great hope then games like today do the exact opposite – they knock you down.
“It’s a fact of football life.”
He added: “The fans don’t see Swansea as one of the top three or four teams in the country against whom a team like ourselves should have no chance, so of course they get very disappointed.
“Last year in our survival season the crowd played a big part.
“Unfortunately, with so many home defeats we’re losing them.
“They come here with such high expectations after we had that great run that pushed us up to 11th last term.
“Every week we send them home a bit disappointed because we’ve lost – and we’re beginning to lose them.
“That is probably the major factor.
“Teams that are fighting relegation really do need a crowd behind them – and we had that last season because I think the crowd had half-accepted we were going down.
“This year they were probably dreaming of a very high finish and as a result they can’t get over their disappointment.
“You can feel the anxiety.
“Last season from the very first moment we were getting the ‘Boing, Boing’ because people were half-expecting us to go down.
“Now you never hear the ‘Boing, Boing’ anymore you just hear a sort of fearful silence – ‘how’s it going to go?’
“That transmits itself to us and the players, and it’s just a natural phenomenon that we can’t do anything about, except win.
“All the time we don’t win that’s how it’s going to be, whether we like it or not, because people are human beings.
“We all get down when we lose and up when we win.
“So you come away from Stoke very happy and tonight we go home extremely unhappy.
“That’s the life we chose.
“Unless we can get back to some winning ways and get the crowd back on our side it is going to be very difficult.”
