{"id":77092,"date":"2023-02-22T08:13:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T08:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/?p=77092"},"modified":"2023-02-22T08:28:27","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T08:28:27","slug":"swansea-city-1-3-stoke-city-is-time-up-for-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/02\/22\/swansea-city-1-3-stoke-city-is-time-up-for-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"Swansea City 1-3 Stoke City &#8211; Is time up for Martin?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An early goal could not lift the mood at the Swansea.com stadium for long as Stoke hit back with two quick first half goals and a late third killer goal to leave SA1 with all three points to the sound of more than frustration from the home crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Or at least that was what was left of the home crowd as most headed for the exit when the third goal went in but in truth a crowd again of less than 16,000 suggests that more than a few fans are now turning their back on the team and the brand of football that Russell Martin has embedded through the club.<\/p>\n<p>The manager talks about one of his aims when he was bought to the club was a return to the Swansea Way but, and it has been said before, this is not the Swansea way.\u00a0 Slow, laborious, meaningless passes with a lack of urgency is not the &#8220;Swansea way&#8221; that saw sides under Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Laudrup be so successful.\u00a0 \u00a0Those teams were built on sharp, incisive passing that broke through defences the way it was created.\u00a0 The football we see now is, at times, no quicker than walking football and watched by an opposition defence who know that the Swans largely do not have the movement to break them down.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='fXhOO2UYRE9to_k8YI-r_Q' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1247363479' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'fXhOO2UYRE9to_k8YI-r_Q',sig:'rrlrKpDW14AIXaUb8C_kFhJoGT900NB5v38XDrfTrno=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1247363479',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Defensively we have been making the same mistakes week in week out for most of the season but the manager seems unable to stop them and we are constantly told that we are &#8220;brave&#8221; and will &#8220;be better&#8221; from the hurt that we currently feeling.\u00a0 \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t seem to be happening though on either front which makes you wonder whether time is now up.<\/p>\n<p>His reaction at the end when it was suggested to him that his side was outplayed and short of confidence was to call it a &#8220;lazy assessment&#8221; but it was an assessment &#8211; lazy or otherwise &#8211; with which so many watching the game would have disagreed.<\/p>\n<p>When Morgan Whittaker, making his first start since his return from loan at Plymouth last month, finished well in the second minute you wondered if it was the catalyst to a better night for the Swans but the reality was it ended up as good as it got.<\/p>\n<p>Defensive shakiness saw us 2-1 down inside twenty minutes as Wood, Darling and Cabango looked flustered at best with the big signing of the summer hauled off at the half hour mark to be replaced by Olivier Ntcham.<\/p>\n<p>Was that a brave move or was it to prevent Darling from any more mistakes at the back, mistakes that have far outweighed the positives of his performances since his summer move from Martin&#8217;s former club in MK Dons.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='obV9m9HURJ9aVLAmFZ64aQ' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1247358052' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'obV9m9HURJ9aVLAmFZ64aQ',sig:'tT2nBf_0PKimOcM1YodRLglYQm3A56oLekGzo2NyYfw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1247358052',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p>The truth was whatever it was it didn&#8217;t make a huge amount of difference.\u00a0 The Swans can point to chances for Piroe and Whittaker again but the reality is we never looked like clawing our way back into the game from the moment we went 2-1 down.<\/p>\n<p>The late goal was a breakaway caused by the Swans &#8220;pushing&#8221; for an equaliser but the stark reality was 73% second half possession meant what it so often does for this side &#8211; absolutely nothing of note.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday after a late goal sent us to defeat at Blackburn <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2023\/02\/18\/have-we-run-out-of-options-now-the-process-doesnt-work\/\">we wondered if we had run out of options<\/a><\/strong> and based by the reaction at the end of the match last night many people think that we actually have.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the ever absent and largely silent ownership group think that we have remains to be seen but for many (85% if a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/forum\/viewtopic.php?f=2&amp;t=11863\">post match poll<\/a><\/strong> of more than 300 is to be believed) the time seems to be up on Russell Martin&#8217;s tenure here.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Rotherham next on Monday night, let&#8217;s see what happens next.\u00a0 \u00a0In many ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MATCH FACTS AND LINE UPS<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"statsfc-match-centre-1\"><\/div>\n\n<p><strong>OTHER CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"statsfc-results-1\"><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"getty aligncenter\"><a id='Q-PBynFWRwRwEX6fxK4ecQ' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1468322184' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Q-PBynFWRwRwEX6fxK4ecQ',sig:'GfMa9YfSEvscwnqJUQD0C9kqE2g-7uzChvfCiWMNtGQ=',w:'594px',h:'399px',items:'1468322184',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/div>\n<p><strong>LATEST TABLE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><div id=\"statsfc-table-1\"><\/div>\n<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>NEXT UP FOR THE SWANS<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"statsfc-next-fixture-1\"><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An early goal could not lift the mood at the Swansea.com stadium for long as Stoke hit back with two quick first half goals and a late third killer goal to leave SA1 with all three points to the sound of more than frustration from the home crowd. Or at least that was what was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[293,49,203],"tags":[552,665],"class_list":["post-77092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-team","category-news","category-opinion","tag-stoke-city","tag-the-2022-23-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}