1. Freestone
2. Jones S
3. Howard
4. Bound
5. Smith
6. Romo #
7. Thomas @
8. Savarese
9. Price
10. Cusack
11. Casey

    ---

12. Mounty
13. Watkin @44
14. Roberts #62
15. O'Leary
16. Lacey

 Wycombe

1. Taylor
2. Townsend
3. Vinnicombe
4. Cousins
5. McCarthy
6. Carroll
7. Brown
8. Simpson
9. Bulman
10. Rammell
11. Thompson

    ---

12. Ryan
13. Parkin
14. Senda
15. Harkin
16. Rogers

A definite improvement on last week's effort at Bournemouth, but at the end of the day it was bad Swans defending that led to another defeat, and begins to make the slump in form look very much like a crisis. The Swans starting line-up saw a further shuffling of the midfield, this time with Romo starting wide right in order to try to find some space in the melee; and with Casey occupying the left sided berth, the grit in the centre was supplied by the familiar Thomas and Cusack combination. We saw the welcome return of Bound to the back four, with O'Leary relegated to the bench, and up front Price and Savarase led the line, putting Steve Watkin on the sidelines.

The opening exchanges seemed promising for the Swans, as we had the lion's share of possession, and moved forward with greater control. Thomas was particularly sharp, and Savarese caused some flutters in the home defence with some clever runs and some solid aerial challenges. Encouraging stuff, but our only attempt on goal in this period was a Savarese header from a Romo corner, which cleared the bar comfortably. The first sign of danger for the Swans came on 9 minutes when Roger failed to connect with an attempted punched clearance, leaving the dangerous Andy Rammel to head wide. Seven minutes later, however, we were not so lucky - Matthew Bound intercepted a dangerous low cross from the Wycombe left, but sent his weak clearance only as far as a Wycombe striker, whose misplaced shot was headed in by Rammell from inside the six yard box. There were calls for off-side, but the presence of three Swans defenders also on the line suggests that he was played on-side...perhaps the Soccer Sunday cameras can clear that one up.

This seemed to rock our rhythm and our confidence, and Rammell nearly doubled his account 2 minutes later when he lost Steve Jones at the far post, but fluffed his close range volley. Three minutes later a similar move saw Rammell pull away to the other post, and when we failed to clear the cross, he was there to volley again, this time making no mistake. Suddenly our defence had fallen apart, and put us into a virtually impossible position, It nearly became much worse on 35 minutes when referee Uriah Rennie pointed to the spot to award the home side a penalty, only to be forced to reverse his decision when he noticed that his assistant had already flagged for an offside. The Swans responded with one good flowing move which resulted in Casey delivering a dangerous ball from the left, which just evaded two players at the far post. At half time we again found ourselves reflecting on an undeserved deficit, but equally acknowledging that we had only ourselves to blame.

The opening exchanges of the second half showed that we were fired up for a battle, but it was Wycombe that nearly extended their lead with a wicked shot into the side netting. But the Swans were forging forward with more purpose now, particularly down the right side. On 52 minutes a great through ball from Price set Watkin (on for Thomas) away down the right. His low cross found Casey, whose shot was parried by keeper Taylor, only for Savarese at full stretch to squeeze the rebound just wide of the post. The introduction of Stu Roberts (for Romo) into a roving attacking role brought more impetus to our front line, and after only two minutes on the pitch, he battled throught two defenders to hit a superb ball across the six yard box which Watkin and Savarese just failed to reach. But just a couple of minutes later, Roberts' pace and energy paid off, as he received the ball in a central position, burst past his marker, and fired an excellent shot into the corner of Taylor's net - a goal of genuine quality.

The home side were still very much in the game, and created a couple of half chances of their own as we pushed forward, forcing Freestone into one comfortable save, and producing a great clearing header from Cusack under pressure. On 76 minutes, Roberts again nearly made another telling contribution as he chipped a shot wide after wriggling free at the edge of the box. At this stage there was a very real sense that a recovery was on the cards, but we just didn't manage to sustain the momentum this time, and with referee Rennie halting the flow by penalising most challenges, and Wycombe understandably slowing the game at every opportunity, we very disappointingly failed to create any more clear chances. We had an opportunity in injury time, when a Howard Free kick resulted in a game of head tennis in the Wycombe area, but no-one was able to convert, and at the final whistle we found ourselves lamenting on points lost, which surely we were capable of gaining.

Player ratings:
Freestone - 7 A couple of flaps early on, but couldn't be faulted for the goals.
Jones - 6 Battled away, but his distribution was poor.
Howard - 6 As above
Smith - 6 Reasonably steady
Bound - 6 Glad to see him back, but a poor clearance for the first goal
Thomas - 6 Very influential early on, but let his temper get the better of him again.
Cusack - 6 Fairly ordinary today, though he did put some impetus into our second half revival
Casey - 5 Had a full 90 minutes but succeeded in delivering only one telling cross.
Romo - 5 Not particularly influential, but a couple of good corners
Price - 5 Looked uncomfortable in a front running role, and lost possession too often.
Savarese - 7 A good all round contribution; some intelligent running and good in the air. Unlucky not to score.
Watkin - 6 A couple of good moments and worked as hard as ever for the team.
Roberts - 9 Only on for half an hour but in that time he scored one, nearly set up a couple of others and caused genuine panic in the opposition defence. Stu was delighted to score and the way he celebrated with the fans shows that he does not want to leave.

There is no doubting that this was another disappointing defeat, and it was against a Wycombe side that in fact looked very ordinary and very beatable. The reason we came away with nothing was poor defending and lack of discipline. Roberts and Saverese were the only real plus points on the field, but at least we know that we are capable of doing so much better than this. The players looked visibly dispirited at times today, particularly when a very small contingent of fans started abusing the management and the team, both during the game and at the final whistle. This did not help matters - there are plenty of beatable teams in this division and there are many points to play for in the second half of the season. All is not lost yet and if we are to help them spark a recovery, we need to get behind them when they are on the field - starting at home to Walsall on Boxing day. Still a white Christmas on the cards!

This was our first visit to Wycombe since that Autoglass Southern final. A new stand along the side to the left of the visitors end as you look at the pitch. A few memories came back of the jam packed terracing, but it was now a seated area. First moan 15 pounds & 9 pounds to get in, that made a total of 39 pounds for a second division game of which no real skill was to be expected.

After our form of late we didn’t expect a large following especially with the run up to Christmas, but there must have been approx. 300 fans there. It was a cold damp misty day, but no actual rain. Watkin was on the bench with Saverese the lone frontman. The back four was back to normal with the return of Bound and the midfield of Cusack Thomas Casey Price and Romo. The referee was ex Premier Uriah Rennie who proved why he is no longer on their list with many baffling decisions. We started brightly without threatening a goal, but with what seemed to be Wycombes first real attack they scored. A cross from their left was touched by Rog as he came out into a group of players, the ball finally falling to Rammell who headed into an empty net with the Swans fans calling for offside. A slight disagreement between me and my sons as I thought it was not offside. Hopefully the TV can give the answer. Cusack had a moan at Rog, but it was bad defending from all.

Heads visibly dropped as Wycombe took full control, with us chasing shadows and all 50/50 balls were won by them. They seemed to have an extra two players as our play broke down time and time again. The inevitable came when they got a second. A similar sort of build up, this time a deep cross from the right was headed back across the six yard box with Rammell again hitting in from close range. Nothing of note in the first half apart from niggly fouls from both teams and near half time Thomas went off injured being replaced by Watkin. There was a large call by Wycombe for a penalty but was correctly waved away by the ref. A very downhearted team left the pitch at half time the fans felt likewise.

The second half saw a slightly better organized team try to get back into the game. The turning point was the introduction of Stu Roberts for an ineffectual Romo who again does not seem to fit into the battling qualities of the British game. From the offset Roberts chased and harried which is what we were missing. We had two good chances. The first was a cross from Steve Jones which was met by Casey, who as at Wrexham had an open goal but put a gentle sidefoot pass to the goalie who could only parry it to the outstretched leg of Saverese, the ball trickling agonizingly wide of the post. The second was created by Roberts with a run down the left and a cross which whistled across the goal missing 2 defenders and 2 incoming forwards. We were now playing better and the breakthrough finally came. Roberts cutting in from the right shot across Taylor into the far left corner. Roberts showed his joy by joining the celebrating fans behind the goal, for which he received a lecture but no booking.

He nearly got a second with a return chip from the edge of the box as he ran away from goal, which had the keeper scrambling. In the 2 minutes of added time there was a goalmouth scramble which lasted what seemed an age before Wycombe cleared.

In summary we played with no pattern in the first half and the effort shown was ineffectual. The second half was much better, but it shows again that with a couple of decent loan signings things should improve. We need them now before the gap becomes too wide. Wycombe are in the top half of the table but only created the two chances they took whereas we had 2 and scored another.

Comments have been made about the lack of support by the fans at Bournemouth. Today there were sporadic chants, but also plenty of vociferous support and a few calls for Hollins & McLure to go but it was all halfhearted. Even with pulling a goal back the general feeling was we are not good enough on this showing. Second moan it took 35mins to get away from the grounds car park.