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

12. Romo @61
13. Appleby #71
14. De Vulgt
15. Jones
16. O'Sullivan

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 Hull

1. Glennon
2. Edwards
3. Holt
4. Whittle
5. Mohan
6. Whitmore
7. Johnsson
8. Petty
9. Beresford
10. Dudfield
11. Alexander

    ---

12. Musselwhite
13. Lee
14. Bloomer
15. Matthews
16. Reddy

The Swans have dropped to their lowest league position since the dark days under Alan Cork, but as on Tuesday, this was a performance from which Swans fans can draw a lot of encouragement. Against a good side on the top of their form, we battled hard and could easily have snatched a point. But more importantly, the team is unrecognisable from the side of only three weeks ago, playing with a pattern, spirit and confidence, even if they are not yet converting this to points.

Indeed for the first half an hour the home side, bouyed up by a vocal home crowd of over 10,000, failed to create a clear cut scoring chance, with the Swans looking comfortable, edging the possession, and silencing the home fans. It was the same Swans team that started at Scunny, with O'Leary, Bound and Todd as the centre back trio, Howard and Jenkins as wing backs and Phillips, Coates and Mumford in midield. Roberts and Williams, our only fit strikers, made up the front two. In fact this was a telling factor - both players naturally want to run wide, and often pushed out to the flanks when some penetration in the centre was needed. Nonetheless, their tireless running, particularly from Roberts, did see us cause some difficulties for the home defence, even though our threats on the Hull goal in the first half were limited to a shot from Williams which flashed just wide.

But it was our midfield which impressed in this period - competing well with the robustness of the Hull midfield, breaking up their pattern of play and generating plenty of Swans possession with some unhurried passing. In fact, when the home side took the lead on 34 minutes, with an excellent looping header from Lawrie Dudfield, it came as somehting of a shock to the home fans, who were suddenly stirred into another general burst of abuse towards their visitors.

Unfortunately this spelled the best spell of play for the home side, which straddled the half time break. Before the interval they began to exert serious pressure, and could have scored but for a timely interception from Todd and a goal line clearance from Lee Jenkins. But after the break, for the first time in the game, Hull managed to expose some of our defensive fragility with some pacy running behind the wing backs which left our back three exposed. On 47 minutes a routine cross was headed up in the air by a Swans defender, and fell straight to the unmarked Julian Johnsson who fired home from 12 yards. A minute later it should have been three - Bound was roasted by a run down our right, and from the cross Gary Alexander missed a golden chance to seal the game.

The Swans team of just a few weeks ago would have capitulated at this point, but today's side deserve tremendous credit for digging in, keeping their shape, and gradually edging their way back into the game. A couple of well timed substitutions helped. Romo replaced Mumford, adding a little more guile to the midfield, and Appleby replaced Williams, who had run himself into the ground. Immediately, Richie made a tremendous impact, delivering an inch perfect cross for the unmarked Stu Roberts to head home on 72 minutes - an excellent headed finish from a player usually more comfortable with the ball at his feet. Appleby continued to cause the home side a lot of problems, with some skillful wing play, and suddenly it was the Swans who were in the ascendency, and once again the home legions fell silent.

In a very positive move Addison/Nicholas called to Matty Bound to push forward into attack, persumably feeling that we might as well gamble to try to get a point, and for the last 15 minuets he played as a makeshift centre forward, as the Swans reverted to a flat back four. A couple more chances fell to the home side, with Roger making two smart saves, and the home fans screaming for penalties against Phillips and Todd both for debatable hand balls. The Swans exerted some pressure and forced a couple of corners, and one excellent move set up Jenkins for a decent chance which he fired over, and this proved to be our last chance to rescue a point. At the final whistle the 200 or so Jacks behind the goal gave the team a well earned ovation for a very good effort.

Freestone - 8 Little chance with the goals; made some smart saves. Howard - 6 Pressing forward more confidently these days Jenkins - 7 Is enjoying the wing back role Bound - 6 His lack of pace rather exposed today O'Leary - 8(!) His best defensive performance for some time Todd - 6 Improving with experience Phillips 8 - A great battling midfield performance with some neat passing. Coates - 6 Drifted in an out Mumford - 7 Got stuck and helped hold the shape Roberts - 8 A real "in your face" performance with a good goal WIlliams - 6 Ran his heart out, but not really happy with playing so centrally Romo - 7 Pretty influential - he should be effective at this level Appleby - 8 A very complete subs performance; showed some great skil, intelligent running and great crossing. Can Addo get the best out of him?