Planet Swans ArchivesFighting back from gifting the home side a 6th minute lead, it was the Swans – with 73% possession – that dominated the game but were left frustrated by some poor finishing, desperate defending ad a blocked final ball that kept the scoreline level after Roland Lamah finished off a perfect Pablo Hernandez cross to score an equaliser that was the least that we deserved.
With the Swans midfield winning back anything that they fed Villa as a crumb of comfort it was all one sided as the home team and their fans became more and more frustrated at their side’s inability to turn anything that they got into anything meaningful. Interestingly on the Holte End a banner boldly read “The Holte End, Villa’s 12th man” which is true enough as for the first 70 minutes of the game they were as crap as the other 11 men on the same side!
The Swans were always looking threatening and offering attacking threats throughout the side in the first 45 minutes with Tiendalli and Ben linking up well with Pablo and Lamah both of whom were having excellent games switching flanks on numerous opportunities and being at the heart of much that was good about the Swans attacking threat.
In the rest of the midfield, Jose Canas was having one of his best games in a Swansea shirt at the same time which was one of the reasons why we were getting the ball back so quickly as he battled and chased down everything to get hold of the ball.
I suspect I wasn’t the only one fearing the worst when Agbonlahor scored after just six minutes having been granted the freedom of the Swans defence to slot home past Tremmel to give Villa a massive boost and a goal that many of their fans believed would almost never be coming.
That though was only a brief respite for Villa with the rest of the half completely being played in their own half as the Swans pressured them and both Shelvey, Pablo and De Guzman all came close before Lamah bundled home Pablo’s cross for the equaliser. It was a goal that had been coming and the visiting fans celebrated in style as they sensed the Swans may be able to push on and look for a second goal in a game they were now in complete control of.
That goal never came in the first half and the second never reached the heights of the first although again the Swans were by far the better team and it was Bony (twice) and Pablo again who threatened the Villa goal with the best chances whilst Tremmel at the other end of the pitch remained pretty much a spectator rarely touching the ball other than to control a loose ball and set the Swans back on yet another foray into the Aston Villa half.
However, the goal would not come and the Swans were forced to settle for a point at the end of a game that they dominated that takes them to the halfway point of the season with 21 points which, when factored into our progress in Europe, is a very satisfactory tally that has set us up nicely for the second half starting against Manchester City at the Liberty next Wednesday.
A decent enough end to our 2013 fixtures just a shame that we could not get the result that our play really deserved.
