Phil Sumbler
Swansea City travel to Norwich City today as they close off their away trips for the season against the promotion chasing Canaries who know that a win will seal their place in the end of season play offs.
The Championship season took another step towards completion last night with Leeds defeat at QPR sealing a return to the Premier League for Leicester City but there is still much to play for elsewhere in the division with a second promotion spot, play off spots and relegation spots still undecided.
Norwich and West Brom could both seal those play off spots today with both being aware that two of the pre-season favourites for promotion could wait in those semi finals with both Leeds and Southampton set to feature although Norwich’s local rivals Ipswich could still come into that equation if they cannot secure the points needed to take an automatic place at next year’s top table.
The Swans 4-0 win at Huddersfield last week banished any relegation fears we had for the third successive game (last week it was secured mathematically) and Luke Williams will want this game and the final game at home to Millwall next season to take a positive run into the close season as we glimpse what looked like a pretty unlikely top half finish.
Even three more points this season will take us close to the sixty point barrier which, given the general disaster feel of this term, shows that we could be capable of pushing on from there with a good summer and the right recruitment. Sounds easy doesn’t it.
Luke Williams has already said that he has the same players to choose from for this game but also hinted that we could see some of his younger players getting experience in this game. Azeem Abdulai’s strong substitute appearance last week could earn him some level of bigger part in today’s game but we should also not lose sight that both Jamal Lowe and Liam Walsh impressed off the bench last week and both will be keen to show more of what they are capable of given the position of their contracts.
With the Swans having nothing to play for other than final league positions for the season this could easily turn into one of those “on the beach” games that we read so much about in April and May but Harry Darling is keen to ensure that the Swans do not let that happen “We don’t want to let the season fizzle out, it would be far too easy for us to allow that to happen,” he said.
“The gaffer is on to us constantly and, as a group, we want to finish the season strong because it’s important to have momentum to carry into next season.
“We will play the last two in the same manner as we have the last few games.
“We want to try and get two more wins to round things off.”
James Linington will be the man in charge when Swansea City travel to Norwich City on Saturday (April 27). The Isle of Wight official took charge of his first EFL match in 2008 – a League One encounter between Yeovil Town and Crewe Alexandra – and has since been promoted to Select Group 2, working mostly in the Championship.
Linington has also been fourth official for a number of Premier League encounters. He first oversaw a Swansea match in 2009 – a second-round League Cup defeat to Scunthorpe United in which he sent off Garry Monk, Gorka Pintado and Angel Rangel – while he most recently blew the whistle during the Swans’ season opener against Birmingham City. That match ended 1-1, with Linington handing out five yellow cards; Jamie Paterson being the only Swan booked.
So far this season, he has taken charge of 22 matches, dishing out 99 yellow cards and one red. On Saturday, he will be assisted by Andrew Fox, and Andrew Dallison. The fourth official will be Ed Duckworth.
The Swans won the reverse fixture earlier this season at the Swansea.com Stadium and were triumphant in this fixture last season but today will see a Norwich side keen to avoid going to Birmingham on the last day needing anything to secure that play off spot. With all those factors built in it is hard to see anything other than a home win in this fixture which gives us
Match Prediction: Norwich City 2-0 Swansea City
Safe travels to all those Jacks making the final away trip of the season.
