1. Freestone
2. Price
3. Howard
4. Bound
5. Smith
6. Romo @
7. Jenkins
8. Savarese #
9. Watkin
10. Cusack
11. Roberts *

    ---

12. Jones J
13. Boyd #75
14. Thomas @57
15. Appleby *57
16. O'Leary

 Oxford

1. Knight
2. Robertson
3. Brown
4. Richardson
5. Linighan
6. Beauchamp
7. Andrews
8. Murphy
9. Fear
10. Gray
11. Lilley

    ---

12. Glass
13. Powell
14. Jarman
15. Weatherstone
16. Hackett

Very difficult to write anything about this match despite it having 3 goals, 1 sending off and 5 bookings! Oh and that's without mentioning the atrocious style of refereeing. I'd be interested to hear what mark the assessor gave him if anybody is privy to that information.

Conditions were what Swansea fans had been used to for the past month - swirling winds followed by second half rain.

John Hollins kept the team that battled for a point away at Oldham with the exception of Mike Howard returning after one match ban in place of De Vulgt.

Pre match amusement was provided in the form of well known Swansea fan Mike Trew, who had been sponsored by his mates in the Garibaldi to be one of the match day mascots for his 40th birthday. Reminded us of when Jan Molby used to wear the Swans kit.

Swansea played against the wind first half and, in their first attack, took the lead against the run of play when Romo fed Price wide right who needed two attempts to cross into the goalmouth. Watkin was the beneficiary as he side-footed home from 2 yards. Surely this was the sort of setback that would demoralise bottom club Oxford and many of us thought we were about to witness a rout.

But the danger signs had already been there before Swansea scored when Oxford showed they were no mugs when it came to competing in midfield. Just 5 minutes after Swansea's goal, Oxford were level thanks to a spectacular shot that the whole crowd on its feet applauding.

Swansea may have been forgiven for letting the dimunitive left winger have the run of the halfway line towards goal had he been an unkown, but the fact that it was Joey Beauchamp should have alerted at least ONE of the Swansea players to the potential danger. Instead of closing him down, he was allowed to make 20 yards with the ball unchallenged and from 30 yards out rifled in a corker of a shot past the helpless Freestone.

With less than a quarter of an hour gone, a section of the North Bank decided to try reverse psychology on Price by chanting for him to be replaced by Appleby. What a bunch of w@nkers - but to JJ's credit, he did not let this affect him and he kept on trying.

In fact, a word about the crowd; there were 55 minutes on the watch when the first pro-Swansea chant was heard. Up until then it had been England's full of shit, You fat bastard, Who ate all the pies, Down with the Swindon, you're going down with the Swindon. Who are these people?

Swansea did mount some attacks, but nearly all shots on target were straight at Knight in the Oxford goal.

Oxford took the lead on the half hour mark when a poorly cleared corner fell to Andrews on the edge of the box. His crisp low drive gave the fully stretched Freestone no chance.

Half time 1-2

Swansea came out for the second half a minute early and to muted applause. Nick Cusack's clapping at the crowd indicated that the talk from Hollins had done the trick and second half would be different - nothing could have been further from the truth.

Swansea continued to play 3-5-2 in which the crowded midfield was outfought and outrun by their Oxford counterparts. There was little pattern to the play and no evidence of a tactical change or plan. Manager Hollins obviously aware of this, replaced the ineffectual Romo (was there a national holiday in France today?) with Thomas and the equally ineffectual Roberts (playing out of postion) with Appleby (also out of position).

The changes had no effect on the pattern of the game and as the Swansea players became more and more frustrated, they began to lose their composure. Cue the authoritarian referee Mr Dowd, whose answer was to brandish yellow cards and move play forward 10 yards at every opportunity. Strangely he ignored the Oxford player who repeatedly held the game up by pretending to tie his bootlaces and also failed to book their goalie when he deliberately ignored the instruction to play on while waiting for said time-waster.

Out of the blue, Bound was shown a red card for an elbow as he ran alongside the far touchline while challenging for the ball. It was impossible to see what had happened, but judging by Matt's reaction to the referee, it was a travesty. Boundy is not the type of player to dish it out and then pretend he didn't.

Strangely, unlike Swansea, Oxford did not find it a handicap to play against10 men and apart from a blatant shirt pull on Price in the area - under the referee's nose, Swansea rarely threatened. A wicked shot from Price was well kept down but sadly for us, flew wide of the far post.

Walter came on to cheers which quickly turned to boos as it became clear that he was replacing Savarese. Chants of "You don't know what you're doing" went up - and it was difficult to disagree with them.

The scenario was a shapeless, clueless approach by Swansea losing 1-2 with 15 minutes to go. What's the sense in replacing your top goal scorer in this situation? Jenkins or Cusack were the obvious candidates to make way.

After 4 minutes of added time, Boyd had the ball at his feet from 8 yards out, but his instant reaction shot was fired straight into the keeper's arms.

After the final whistle, those in the crowd that hadn't already left, let their feelings be known.

Ratings:
Freestone 6 - not much to do, but distribution was poor
Price 5 - tried but got nowhere
Howard 6 - tried
Smith 5 - may be carrying an injury or has just lost form
Bound 6 - along with the rest of the defence, did not have a good game
Roberts 4 - not in the game at all
Romo 3 - dire
Cusack 5 - ineffective
Jenkins 6 - tried but didn't get the ball much
Watkin 6 - tried to control the ball and lay off but lay offs were wayward
Savarese 7 - pick of the bunch, but more potentially good positions than actual

Thomas 6 - won 4 free kicks for HIS fouling after the ref totally lost control
Appleby 6 - made a difference down the line - but got no crosses over
Boyd 4 - nothing done - nothing to say

Summary:
There will be calls for Hollins to go - in fact there were a few callers to Swansea Sound after the match saying this. I will not call for his head - he got us into this mess, and at £150,000 a year, he can damn well get us out of it. If he offered his resignation without demanding a payoff then that would be a different matter.

Until he recalls Steve Jones (or replaces him with similar quality) we will not have a solid basis from which to build on. I keep hearing this crap about results and performances dipping since Hamer left. Maybe it's also the time that Hollins cat started developing diahorrea - but that's also got nothing to do with it. As someone remarked today - we always do well with the yellow ball. Thanks God it wasn't the white one or we'd have had a real stuffing!

Today showed that we are bereft of any tactical ideas and despite having quality on the bench, had no idea how to utilise that to change approach when things were obviously not working. Changing like for like is a sound principle when we are doing well - I would suggest something different is called for when we are not.

Two weeks ago I sat in this very place writing about one of the worst Swansea performances I have ever seen. To be fair, this ranks among them.

Without going into too much detail, today was bloody awful. We were undone by an Oxford side who were quicker to the loose ball and, in basic terms, WANTED to win the game. More than can be said for at least half of our team.

John Hollins is, at best, an inept manager who has no idea on how to out manoeuvre the opposition. His substitutions defy belief and his tactics of playing right footed players such as Stuart Roberts on the left are plain stupidity at it's best.

Second half and 2-1 down to the side with the worst defensive record in the division, you would expect bold gambles to try and get back into the game. Not from the much admired John Hollins you get like for like substitutions.

Romo off Thomas on, Roberts off, Appleby on, Savarese off, Boyd on. They cannot even be justified on the basis that the substituted players were having a bad game, eveybody was.

The Bound sending off I did not see but I am told was an elbow, if so, no complaints at all. Rules are rules and he has to walk.

We now have him suspended. Will Hollins be proud enough to swallow his pride and ask Steve Jones to pull his shirt back on. Or is he too stubborn for that? More to the point, will he be here when the decision arises. On recent display's I hope not.

The cries at the substitutions were unanimous, "You don't know what you're doing" and it's right, I seriously don't believe he does.

This result, leaving us with 3 points from the last 21, is another nail in John Hollins' coffin - he is rapidly running out of time as Swansea City Manager and an FA Cup exit at Bournemouth next week could be the final one.

For the record, and you can quote this all you like Mr McClure - HOLLINS OUT!

John Bradley - "we won't be in the bottom half come next May" - We will my friend, we will, more likely on our form bottom 4 and relegated by Easter.