Match report

Send in your match report for inclusion on this page.

Lister's view - Gary Martin

Swansea beat Hull 1-0 at the Vetch tonight in a contest not at all dissimilar to any of the 1-0 wins under John Hollins in the promotion season of 2 years ago. Hull will feel they have been mugged but they have no one but themselves - and a record appearance breaking Roger Freestone to blame for that.

There were actually queues outside the Vetch turnstiles before kick off this evening, as the new consortium's attempt to get more bums on seats was clearly a winner. A crowd of 5006 ticked through the turnstiles to watch the Swans under a clear starlit sky.

Prior to kick off, the tranquility of the surrounding streets was shattered by police sirens - as the heavy presence of the law dealt with outbreaks of violence - especially in the vicinity of the Garibaldi. Reports reached me that some of the windows had been put in. My sister-in-law visiting Swansea earlier in the evening had also reported a heavy police presence in the City.

Despite all the above, inside the ground there looked to be something less than 150 Tigers fans that had made the long trip.

On the field, Addison stuck with EXACTLY the same line-up as for Tuesday's encounter with Scunthorpe, with the bench also being occupied by the same personnel.

Swans lined up in 3-5-2 formation, of which regular readers of these reports, will be familiar with by now.

Hull started the brighter but the first moment of excitement came from Swansea.

A free kick awarded in an identical position to where Mumford did his Beckham from on Tuesday (but up the opposite end), saw him sprint [sic] the length of the field to take it. Meanwhile, the pony-tailed Sneekes, had needlessly kicked the ball away and was promptly booked. All Mumford's calculations with a mental sextant and slide-rule were made redundant by referee Curson, who as punishment for Hull, moved the ball forward 10 yards to the edge of the area.

The target for Mumford was now less inviting from the point of view of swinging the ball into one of the corners, but more appealing for a good old fashioned blast now the distance had been reduced. In the end, caught in two minds and with two separate run ups, he tamely hit the ball straight at the wall and it rebounded to safety.

For the next 30 minutes, Hull denied Swansea possession by and large and their tactic was to clear the ball from their own half and then play football in Swansea's. This they did to good effect through their two dimunitive Brodie look-alikes, who caused havoc in the Swansea back line with their runs from both flanks.

During this period, Roger Freestone was called on to make 3 top drawer saves to keep Swansea level with Hull.

Then with 5 minutes to go to half-time, Swansea showed that superiority can count for nothing, when Coates unleashed a 30 yard left-foot screamer which cannoned off the upright and back into play with Musselwhite helpless in the Hull goal.

Swansea trooped off at half-time feeling lucky to be on equal terms after having had only 30% of the game up until then.

Half time 0-0

Again Addison replaced Brodie with Williams for the second half with Phillips pushing into midfield as Swans went 4-3-3.

This did allow Swansea a greater share of the possession as Hull failed to react to the change. The second half was a far more even contest and the outlet of John Williams on the right wing gave the team a lot more balance.

Swansea started to create several chances and force corners but again there was little cutting edge where it counted - in front of goal.

As the second half progressed, the match could have gone either way, but it was the introduction of Casey that proved to be significant. First of all the North Bank crowd were unsure of who the shaven-headed player was that was lining up to come on - and when it was realised that it was Casey replacing Coates, there were half-stifled groans.

This had the effect of Swansea going 4-2-4 and the added pressure of this on the Hull defence was beginning to tell. Mis-hit and hurried clearances became the norm as Swansea enjoyed their best spell of pressure. Most of this came from corners and long throws. First Sharp was denied when his goal-bound shot from 6 yards was brilliantly tipped over by Musselwhite. Next it was Todd who saw his looping header land on the crossbar and Cusack had a well hit drive from the edge of the box tipped around the post by the increasingly busy Hull keeper.

But the breakthrough didn't come until 5 minutes from time. A corner from the right was neatly delivered to the far post by Casey where Watkin headed the ball into the net. Again this was poor defending as the ball had travelled around head height past a number of defenders.

Hull immediately replaced their two Brodies with Walter Boyd's international partner Theodore Whitmore - and another Brodie look alike! Some of you reading this will remember Max Boyce's song about the fly-half factory just outside Llanelli - well I suspect there a Brodie factory somewhere in the North East.

With four minutes held up for added time it was Swansea's turn to anxiously play out for the win - but in all fairness, they did this quite comfortably.

Player ratings:
As I less than 72 hours ago commented on the same personnel, some of my comments will be in relate to the previous ones.

Freestone 8 - Is the main reason why we won tonight. Excellent saves in the first half, without which we would have been deservedly a couple of goals down.

Phillips 6 - similar game to Tuesday

Todd 6 - average sort of performance - his first half booking for a tackle from behind will now bring him a suspension

Sharp 7 - pick of the defence tonight

Mumford 5 - a poor showing from Tuesday's man of the match

Howard 6 - same as Gazza

Brodie 4 - marginally worse than Tuesday

Cusack 6 - visibly losing a bit of pace as the season and time marches on

Coates 6 - average

Sidibe 5 - no improvement on Tuesday but did perk up a little when Williams was on

Watkin 6 - well marked and often isolated from long balls up the field

Williams 7 - made a difference with width to the team

Casey 6 - crossed the ball for the goal

In summary, Hull will feel that they have been mugged. Clearly one of the better teams to visit the Vetch this year. Addison and the players can feel proud of the way they hung on in and snatched this match - but on shot counts alone, they will feel it was deserved.

Heard a number of stories of people attending tonight that had been tempted back by the £5 admission fee.

A special mention to the North Bank choir - started superbly and it wasn't their fault that their enthusiasm waned for the most part of the game - there was little to enthuse about on the pitch until the last 15 minutes.

But at the end of the day, we can turn around and say that a victory to us now is more important than the performance as we continue to draw ourselves up the table. 12th position this morning, and we would have given anything to be there a few weeks ago. Let's hope a lot of the 5006 who turned up tonight are back to support at the next game, as the price policy certainly worked.