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

12. De Vulgt
13. Appleby
14. Tyson
15. Jones
16. Mumford

    ---

 Shrewsbury

1. Cartwright
2. Drysdale
3. Rioch
4. Redmile
5. Heathcote
6. Murray
7. Atkins
8. Aiston
9. Jagielka
10. Rodgers
11. Jemson

    ---

12. Dunbavin
13. Tretton
14. Moss
15. Wilding
16. Lowe

The lowest home league gate of the season, saw the most entertaining match for a long while down at the Vetch field this evening.

Addison made one change to the team by replacing Mumford with the fit again Cusack in midfield. Swansea again lined up in their now familiar 3-5-2 formation, but after only one minute (of the first half this time) they found themselves a goal down.

A cross from the left was powerfully headed home by Jemson. No sign of any of the 3 centre backs going to meet his unchallenged near post run.

A period of anxiety followed from Swansea, with their best football being played from the back. In fact, one such move saw 6 passes across the back line and between midfield, before Cusack hoofed the ball up for Williams and Roberts to chase. Surely the inter-passing would be more effective in the final 3rd of the field and not the other way around?

However, after 20 minutes the Swans began to get their game together. Roberts came close when he cut inside from the right and flashed a shot goalwards, only to see it canon off a defender and behind for a corner.

Phillips was doing quite a bit of tenacious tackling in midfield (not all of it legal) and it was this approach which gave Swansea the upper hand.

On 24 minutes, Roberts repeated his cut inside of 5 minutes earlier and this time saw his sweetly hit shot take an ever so slight deflection on the way into the keeper's top right hand corner of the net. What a strike!

Celebrations had hardly died down when a through ball saw Williams on the left returning in an offside position, but Roberts on the left of centre ran onto the ball and the referee quite rightly allowed play to continue. To prevent Roberts gaining another strike on goal, the Shrews keeper came rushing out of his box and cleared upfield. The ball fell to Coates who was just inside his own half. With one movement, Coates returned the ball fully 50 yards into the empty net. The sparsely populated Vetch crowd went wild.

The game then settled into a 10 minute period where both teams appeared to be taking a breather, during which time Phillips became the first Swansea player to be booked for a late tackle. His 4th yellow card which will no doubt prove costly when taken into account with his red last week.

The final 10 minutes of the half (with 5 minutes added for the stretchered off Shrews full back) saw Swansea play flowing football, last seen when Molby squeezed into a white shirt.

The passing and movement along the floor in and around the Shrewsbury box was first class. Moves involved Roberts. Williams and Cusack using slide-rule accuracy to wreak havoc in the Shrews defence.

Second half was a different story. A scrappy encounter with Swansea happy to sit back and invite Shrewsbury pressure. Despite the territorial domination, Shrewsbury had to wait until the 75th minute to gain the equaliser that was always on the cards. Another cross, this time from the right flank, and again Murray was unmarked 6 yards out to direct another powerfully well-placed header past Freestone.

Addison replaced Williams with a lively looking Tyson and it was just the lift Swansea needed.

The small travelling Shrewsbury contingent were soon silenced again though – 4 minutes later in fact. Roberts after some good work down the left, swung in a ball that looked too close to the keeper. But as he went down to gather, his centre half also went for the ball, and the resulting pop-up fell nicely for Coates to steer the ball into the net from 3 yards out.

This looked like the winner but Shrewsbury are not top of the table by accident and they threw everything at the Swans. From yet another cross, Heathcote had a clear shot on the far post. His goalbound shot looked over the line before O'Leary punched it clear but the referee awarded a penalty and sent KOL off his trouble.

Jemson made no mistake from the spot and despite Roger going the right way, it was really well hit and placed to his right.

Appleby then came on for Roberts in the hope that he could repeat his magic from Hull.

Some pressure and corners from both sides for the final 10 minutes of play, but it appeared that both had settled for draw.

Coates needlessly got booked in the dying minutes for arguing with the fussy referee.

Quite an entertaining game but several questions need to be answered:

1. Why are we allowing so many goal scoring opportunities from crosses? Can't we cut these out at source?
2. When the crosses come over why are the opposition finding it easy to lose their markers.
3. How long can Lewis survive now that today's crowd takes the home average to below 4000.