1. Freestone
2. Casey #
3. Howard
4. O'Leary
5. Bound
6. Todd
7. Phillips
8. Coates
9. Cusack
10. Tyson @
11. Williams

12. Watkin #79
13. Mazzina
14. Mumford @90
15. Jones
16. Keegan

    ---

 Darlington

1. Collett
2. Heckingbottom
3. Liddle
4. Betts
5. Jeannin
6. Maddison
7. Atkinson
8. Hodgson
9. Wainwright
10. Conlon
11. Mellanby

    ---

12. Brumwell
13. Marsh
14. Marcelle
15. Harper
16. Van der Geest

Tonight's result was just the tonic that everyone associated with Swansea City needed. It's just a shame that this excellent Swansea performance was witnessed by the lowest league gate of the season.

In these dire times, tonight's crowd of 2926 on a wintry windswept Swansea night, illustrates that the hard core that Swansea can rely on - around 3000.

Addison made one change to the team that under-performed so badly at home to Orient last Saturday by drafting in Ryan Casey in place of Leigh De-Vulgt. Gareth Phillips filled the vacant right wing back slot allowing Caset to to play wide on the left..

In contrast to Saturday's heatwave, tonight's match was played in heavy rain showers accompanied by a fierce west wind which made it feel like the middle of winter.

Despite a tentative opening, the first chance fell to Nathan Tyson after just 4 minutes - but his shot from 18 yards, although well hit, was aimed straight at the keeper. This was to be a feature of the first half.

Swansea forced a couple of corners but Darlintgton looked dangerous on the break and forced a few of their own.

With play switching from end to end, Tyson fashioned another opportunity but could only head over when just 6 yards out.

Swansea continued to create chances but the diminutive Collett in the Darlington goal seemed to act like a magnet to any shots or crosses that were made and Howard's 25 yard shot proved to be no exception.

With Swansea building up a head of steam, the Darlington goal came under severe pressure. First a Tyson shot was tipped over and from the resulting Casey corner, Tyson again connected with his head only to see the woodwork come to Collett's rescue.

This spurred the fans on and chants of Petty Out were soon replaced by Swansea 'til I die - but it was still bl**dy cold on the sparsely populated NB.

Swansea had a let off after 25 minutes when a corner from the right saw 2 Darlington players unmarked on the penalty spot but Liddle headed wide when he surely could have made it difficult for Freestone from that range. This brought the 20 or so Darlington die-hards, who had made the thankless journey, to life.

Cusack started finger-waving at John Williams for not picking either of these defenders up at the corner but Williams was more than prepared to stand his ground by arguing that he was already occupied with marking duties on the edge of the box.

With 10 minutes left to half time Cusack drilled in a 25 yarder again on target but straight at the keeper.

Half time 0-0 when it could have been 4 goals for Swansea with better finishing and to be fair - at least one for Darlington.

Trade was brisk behind the North Bank at half-time - especially in the burger van!

Phil Sumbler was caught on camera breaking the boycott on hot dogs and burgers – shamelessly destroying the evidence by eating it!

Second half saw Swansea resume attacking hostilities but the opening goal was a relatively tame one when it came.

Coates fed the ball to Cusack at the edge of the area and his right footed daisy cutter appeared to be covered by Collett diving to his left, but somehow the ball evaded his outstretched arm and ended up in the bottom right hand corner of the net. It was no more than Swansea deserved and the relief was tangible – both from the fans and the players.

Three minutes later and Swans were 2-0 up from a super strike by Nathan Tyson. Cutting in from the left wing a la Sturat Roberts, when centrally positioned, he unleashed an unstoppable left footed screamer from the edge of the area into the top right corner of the net.

The North Bank went wild as did the players with Tyson turning his shirt 180 degress to pint out his name and number. One novel way to avoid a booking while still messing about with your shirt.

Despite Darlington's attempts to sneak a goal to get back in to the match, Swansea continued to press forward. A foul on Tyson resulted in a booking for Jeannin and minutes later Tyson was again fouled approaching the box. Coates shaped up from 25 yards out and against a swirling wind saw his shot skim off the top of the crossbar to safety.

Todd made an excellent block to prevent Maddison's shot from going in and Coates (my man of the match) also saved O'Leary's blushes when his last ditch tackle prevented a scoring opportunity after a sloppy square ball on the edge of the area gifted Darlington an opportunity.

With 20 minutes left Swansea should have made it 3-0 when Williams managed to hit a glorious opportunity against the post instead of the back of the net. Casey's cross had done the damage but Williams failed from 5 yards out.

Darlington nearly made the Swans pay for their profligacy but Roger was on top form when tipping Harper's drive behind for a corner.

Watkin made a welcome return from injury replacing the out of sorts Casey and immediately made an impact by winning free kicks or holding off his marker to give intelligent lay offs to team mates (Ianto).

Roger made sure that he earned his bulging pay packet ;-) when he made a point blank save from 5 yards out after some somnambulistic defending in front of him.

There was still time for Mumford to have a 3 minute run out in place of Tyson as Swansea ran the clock down for a well deserved home win.