1. Freestone
2. Jones S
3. Howard
4. O'Leary
5. Smith
6. Romo
7. Lacey @
8. Boyd
9. Watkin
10. Cusack
11. Roberts #

    ---

12. Jones J
13. Savarese
14. Thomas 61@
15. De Vulgt
16. Casey 69#

 Bournemouth

1. Stewart
2. Cummings
3. Purches
4. Howe
5. Tindall
6. Day
7. Hughes
8. Elliott
9. Jorgensen
10. Fletcher
11. Defoe

    ---

12. Menetrier
13. Eribenne
14. Broadhurst
15. O'Connor
16. Hayter

"You're worse than Cardiff City" and "you're s*** and you know you are" was the best that the dire and ununspiring home support could muster; but the couple of hundred Jacks that braved Dean Court today must have traipsed out feeling that the home supporters, if rather flat and unoriginal, at least had a grasp of the truth. This was not one of our more encouraging efforts, and in fact we struggle to find anything particularly positive to take from it.

The Swans tried once again to accommodate David Romo into the midfield by playing him wide left, with Lacey and Cusack taking the centre berths, and Stuart Roberts on the right. Boyd partnered Watkin up-front, with the usual back four, except for O'leary replacing the suspended Bound. A groin strain apparently kept Savarese on the bench.

We didn't even start brightly, with the first flap in our defence coming after five minutes when an inswinging Bournemouth free kick just evaded everyone and, fortunately, Roger's far post. The bustling Steve Fletcher soon brought the home side's first strike on goal, firing over from 20 yards, and the dangerous and pacy Jermain Dafoe caused several flutters as he outstripped O'Leary and Smith for pace, but he failed to convert a couple of decent chances. Our only response during this first half our was one decent corner, and weak shot from Roberts after a tricky run down the right side. The first half was characterised by our inability to get any sort of grip in midlfield - the home side bossed the play, sliding the ball through to their strikers at will, whilst we struggled to put two passes together, and came off second best in almost every challenge.

We thought we had weathered the storm, when a nightmare passage of play for the Swans defence turned the game irrevocably in the home side's favour on the half our. First we failed to clear a dangerous ball from the left, and Freestone spilled it under a dubious challenge from Defoe. This chance went begging as we scrambled it wide, but a minute later, Defoe was again sent away on goal via the simplest of through balls, and as he rounded Roger, he fell to the ground under pressure from our keeper's despairing dive. There was some dispute in the Swans supporters ranks as to whether this was a penalty, but to be fair, most refs would have given it. Fortunately, he did not see fit to send Freestone off, preferring to settle for a yellow card. As it was most certainly a clear goal scoring opportunity, we can consider this a let off. But there was no reprieve with the spot-kick, converted easily by Richard Hughes.

A minute later some petulance from Watkin earned him a booking, as he pointedly stopped to tie his shoelace right in front of the Bournemouth keeper who was trying to take a goal kick. Indisipline of this kind could cost us dear. So could missing chances like the one the fell, out of the blue, to Cusack in first half injury time. Had he controlled Romo's through ball and slotted it home, we may have salvaged the game, but it was not to be.

The second half began in the same fashion, with the Swans struggling to contain the home side's robust and physcial game. After only 2 minutes the dangerous Defoe broke free again and hit a looping shor just wide. A couple of minutes later we conceded possession in Bournemouth's half, and three simple passes later, Defoe was again free of his marker and running in on goal. With Roger hopelessly off his line, a thirty yard lob was a possibility, and proving his premiership pedigree, the on-loan Hammer placed ball perfectly over Roger's head and into the net for an ewxcellent clincher. A pity that this talented stirker spoiled his performance by so willingly going to ground with blatant dives at every opportunity - he has too much talent to waste by cheating.

The Swans rallied slightly, and looked to get the ball forward more quickly to the strike pairing. Romo hit a weak shot on target from distance, and Roberts produced one excellent run to the bye-line but over-hit his cross. Our best move of the game saw Watkin and Boyd link up in a two on two situation, but they over-played it and the chance went. JH tried to shake things up a bit - Thomas came on for Lacey and sparked some life into the attack, and Casey came on for Roberts with less effect - but nothing was going to change this one. We also contrived to pick up several needless bookings for indicipline, and a scuffle between Smith and Thomas topped off our embarrassment. In the latter stages, Roger made two good saves with his feet to make the score look respectable, but we never threatened to get back into it, and the home side won the game in second gear.

Player ratings:
Freestone - 6 - some good saves, but must take some of the blame for the goals
Jones - 6 - A decent performance at the back, but never got forward to support Roberts
Howard - 6 Struggled to hold the fort down the flanks
Smith - 7 - Our most solid defender, though occasionaly cuaght for pace.
O'Leary - 5 - Couldn't cope with Defoe.
Romo - 6 - some nice touches, but can't cope with the physical side.
Cusack - 6 - lots of honest endeavour, but didn't make much impression.
Lacey - 6 Struggling to come back to fitness, but shows some promise.
Roberts - 6 - Three good runs..at least he had a tilt at them - but not one of his better games.
Watkin - 6 - Played the whole game with his back to goal.
Boyd - 4 - Too easily brushed off the ball. I think we can now give up hope that he will ever adjust to the British game.
Thomas - 7 - A decent effort; plenty of aggression.
Casey - 5 - No real impact.

Not one for the scrap-book this. We looked jaded and lacking in ideas, and we never really threatened the opposition goal. Bournemouth were nothing to shout about - they muscled it in midfield, and played the ball to the feet of pacy strikers who broke to the flanks with well-timed runs. Their midfielders then supported the attack in numbers - a simple game plan which was too much for us. But I seem to recall the Swans doing this to the opposition not so long ago. Will we see them do this again? Some players will need to sort out their attitudes and their discipline, and others will have to start delivering on their potential. Some reinforcements will also be needed. But let's not give up hope yet - there's plenty of football to be played. Let's stay behind them all the way, starting at Wycombe next Saturday..."I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....."

We got there 25 minutes late and soon after Bournemouth had a penalty, I thought that it was a penalty myself but the other fans I talked to said that Roger went for the ball and even got his hand to it! I just saw the bloke fall over Freestone's arms and it did look like he took him out. It was a dodgy decision though and our players were gutted to go one down but they kept on trying to the end so it wasn't a case of giving up more like our confidence was a lot lower than Bournemouth's.

I thought that we would come back and we made plenty of attacks but could not get through the Bournemouth defence, a few times we did have some good chances and if Savarese was playing we could well have drawn it.

Boyd showed some of his usual skill at times but doesn't look anywhere near as good as he was getting last season, he isn't really match fit due to the injuries he's had and will improve but he needs to sort out his biggest problem, at times he just stands there when he should be going for everything. Is it laziness or just his style of play? Whatever it is he needs to sort it, also the 2 or 3 times when he got the ball in front of goal he tried to get past the defenders to get a clear shot when he should have just hit it first time. This seems like the way he plays but he should change and practice welting the ball with his first touch, he has the ability to do it and could score loads if he tried to do it. every time he tried to get past the defenders he would get closed down and they would get the ball off him or he would hit it into them.

Roberts tried hard and looked likely to get something but just like all of our attempts down the wings, their defenders were well up for it, they did a lot of shirt pulling which the linesman could clearly see but never gave us anything for, I was gutted when Roberts was taken off and don't really know why he was.

Romo was good and did some good passing, if he can improve we may start to do a lot better.

Watkin played quite good and his passing too was good but he could not get through the Bournemouth's defence.

Thomas really went for it, he did excellent and caused a lot of problems.

Our biggest concern I thought was in the air, we won the ball loads of times but what's the point of winning it if you can't direct it to one of our own. The number of headers the we won but passed to Bournemouth's players was bad news.

Overall at times we played some great football and strung some good passes together, we got the ball up and near goal a lot but Bournemouth were too good with their defence and made our chances few and far between. They had first class support and their fans sang well throughout, I would say that with Savarese on, a better ref and with better support from our fans we would have matched them. I definitely would not say that they were the better side, they were much more up for it and confident than us (especially after they had scored) but I think that at home we should have the advantage and should win that one.

The biggest thing that I was gutted about was the lack of vocal/singing support from our supporters. After the penalty our players kept trying and looked likely to score but it was the Swans supporters who gave up, I don't remember one real well sung song, one effort was after they sang Bournemouth till I die and we started singing Swansea Till I die back but it wasn't too good, there was a few more half hearted attempts by us but they were crap.

With all the talk about the team giving up and the lack of fighting spirit, what I saw was a gutted team who were at least trying to come back but what happened to us being the best singers etc, not yesterday, we were sh*te, when Bournemouth gave us stick (your worse than Cardiff City etc) I expected the usual retaliation from us but there was nothing - our fans were silent and just looking at them. Sing when your winning or what. At Cambridge we sang full on at 3-0 down, do we need the Belgium's Swans supporters to get us going for that type of great support?

It was a gutter to go 1-0 down but we should have still been singing as loud as possible, Bournemouth were going for it and I was humiliated because we were so quiet. All our fans were doing was shouting cheat, cheat, cheat nonstop whenever the player who was allegedly fouled by Freestone got the ball. When Thomas came on as a sub it was just a few people clapping, we had given up and our players put us to shame by the amount of effort they showed compared to the amount of effort our fans showed!

After the Cambridge game where a lot of Belgiums came over and really got the Swans fans going (the Belgiums are nuts and always sing and jump up and down non stop), we were singing full force at 3-0 down and this got our team really worked up too. At the Bristol Rovers game we sang Johnny Hollins Barmy Army non stop for 20 odd minutes and the team responded, why were we so quiet at Bournemouth? To be honest I don't expect to win when we go away, this is the second division after all. I do expect the travelling Jacks to give our usual best vocal support though and was more disappointed at the lack of it at Bournemouth than the result.