Those who left the game at 90 minutes tonight may well be sitting at home in the warmth of a confident and ever improving 2-0 win for the Swans against Millwall.<\/p>\n
But the cynics amongst us could always see what was about to happen: a host of chances missed? Tick. Dominant for the majority of the match? Tick. Too many substitutions by Russell Martin? Tick. What was about to happen?<\/p>\n
You guessed it. Two own goals – to rub salt into the wounds – to snatch a point from the jaws of three against a Millwall side that looked to have accepted their fate after an 81st minute effort that bounced off the bar.<\/p>\n
Those who left also wouldn’t have seen Russell Martin’s moment of pure rage towards Jamie Paterson who he believes had a big say in Millwall’s equalising goal.<\/p>\n
Ben Cabango had already flicked the ball into the net to make it a nervous last two minutes of injury time when the ball went out for a Millwall throw. Usually that’s the time to waste time.<\/p>\n
Not if you’re Paterson who despite being injured was on the bench and swiftly punched the ball back to Millwall who then proceed to level things courtesy of Nathan Wood’s back post header.<\/p>\n
If the opposition aren’t good enough to score then we sure as hell find a way to do it for them.<\/p>\n
But Martin was particularly angry: “For 93 or 94 minutes, we were by far and away the best team.<\/p>\n
Dominant, aggressive, everything we got criticised for against Blackburn, and rightly so in a lot of senses, I think the boys put right tonight.<\/p>\n
“We should score more goals. Millwall only had one shot on target before two of our defenders score an own goals.<\/p>\n
“We should make more of our own chances in the final third. I have to take responsibility for it, I’m in charge of the mentality of the team. Even though we have so many young men on the pitch, we have to do better than we did.<\/p>\n
“The ball goes out for a throw-in, and one of our players not involved punches the ball back on the pitch. I’m absolutely furious about it. I’ve told him. That just can’t happen. He punched the ball back to them to take a throw-in quickly and we concede a goal.<\/p>\n
“Whether you’re on the bench or whether you’re not involved, you need to add value to your team somehow. That’s certainly not adding value.”<\/p>\n
Strong words and maybe a bit harsh. Bottom line is that we didn’t draw that game due to Jamie Paterson. It was poor game management and defending. But he continued…<\/p>\n
“It wasn\u2019t a young lad. He knows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to keep control of the game. Let\u2019s start with not giving the ball back to the opposition when it goes out for a throw, because they are the moments in this league where if that\u2019s against us, I am pretty sure it\u2019s getting hit into the stands, it takes a minute to get it back and the game\u2019s done, everyone goes away feeling really good.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we find the answer? We will sit and talk honestly about the problems like we always do.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cIf the penny drops and they really want to impact the league, they have a chance to. We are really close to being very, very good and some moments tonight were very, very good. But we need to eradicate those moments to really have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n