Match report

Swansea 2 Bournemouth 0

Bournemouth were the visitors to the Vetch for The Swans' second home match, following two consecutive away games, and we were still chasing our first win of the season. A few changes had been forced on Nick Cusack through injury and suspension, and the team lined up as follows:

Roger Freestone
Lee Jenkins – Neil Sharpe – Terry Evans – David Theobold – Michael Howard
Andrew Mumford – Gareth Phillips – Paul Reid
James Thomas – Jamie Wood

On the bench were:

Andrew Marsh – Jonathan Keaveny – John Williams – David Moss – Nick Cusack

With O'Leary, Murphy, Jason Smith, Lacey, De-Vulgt, Watkins and David Smith all sidelined and in the stand, the strength of the team on display today was testament to the depth of squad that Cusack has assembled during the close season.

Roger Freestone was playing his 500^th League fixture for the Swans and was given a standing ovation as he led the team out to mark the occasion.

A very pleasing crowd of 4,825 respected the minute silence immaculately, and they had not had chance to settle back into their seats and express their pre-match expectations when the Swans took a one-goal lead through Jamie Wood after 12 seconds of the game. A horrendous mix-up between the Bournemouth keeper and his central defender saw the ball land at Wood's feet and he was able to side-foot the ball into an empty net.

At home at least the Swans seemed to have carried on from where they left off against Rushden & Diamonds, and the performance in the early stages was very encouraging, throwing the North Bank into good voice in good numbers. On 10 minutes, a Sharp header across goal threatened to increase the lead, but Theobold, making his Swans debut, was unable to get a final touch.

On seventeen minutes, Reid made sure that the Swans record of collecting coloured cards would continue for this game at least when he caught a Bournemouth player after the ball had gone. A good, headed effort by Mumford on 21 minutes was followed almost immediately by a yellow card for Neil Young, the Bournemouth full back, for a tackle on Mumford himself. From the resulting free kick, Thomas headed just over.

A free kick to the visitors on the edge of the Swans penalty area a few minutes later, also saw Theobold booked for dissent.

The one nil half time lead that the Swans enjoyed was a fair reflection on the game, although there had been some panic in the Swan defence in the closing stages of the first half, as the early fire seemed to dampen a little. Roger was dangerously and possibly needlessly outside his area on one occasion displaying his outfield talents to the pleasure of everyone except his team mates, and some clever work by Elliott, the Bournemouth midfielder, who was always looking sharp, and had one superb run through the midfield, beating several players.

Bournemouth were forced to make a late first half substitution when Northern Ireland International Warren Feeney was stretchered off with his leg in a splint.

The revitalised Bournemouth performance that we saw from 35 minutes continued for a long period into the second half. During the half time break, the optimist sitting behind in the East stand had already decided that the game was going to be a draw, and on occasions Elvis Presley's lyric of 'a little less conversation' seemed very apt. Despite his adamant stance that all would turn sour, we did not let him rain on our parade, and slowly but surely the Swans started to re-establish the dominancy they had shown in the first half, and eliminate some sloppy defending which had started to creep into their game.

James Thomas was replaced by Williams with 20 minutes to go, and the formation changed to a flat back four, with Evans reverting to right back and Jenkins moving to left midfield.

On 75 minutes it was 'Comes a Time' and 'Tonight's the Night' for Neil Young as he was shown a second yellow and then a red card for a foul. With the man advantage the Swans started to string together some very attractive moves, often only foiled by some dubious offside decisions.
Then on 83 minutes, the comfort of the second goal that the Swans had been seeking for so long was achieved through a header from Mumford, and with the Famous Five riding on a 25/1 shout on him being first or last scorer from the Swans, a 2-0 win seemed a very good result to end on, especially when he was substituted for Moss on 87 after a knock on the head. Minutes earlier, Wood, who had worked tirelessly throughout the game, was brought down, and the defender seemed very fortunate not to receive a straight red card for what appeared to be a harsh challenge. Wood had to leave the field as a result of the challenge, and was replaced by Keaveny, another home debutant.

With a two nil final score, the first win of the season sent the crowd home very happy. At 11^th in the table, Bristol Rovers away on Tuesday, and York at home next Saturday, we could make some real progress in the next 7 days if we perform like this. The defence, with the exception of a few hairy moments in the second half, looked sound, and Sharp and Theobold had excellent games on the ground and in the air. We have continued our two goals per game average, and with the defence looking a lot more composed, let's hope that we start to get used to improving our goal difference with every game. Whether the row behind us will be impressed we're not so sure, and just to prove that the mood exists elsewhere, it was obvious that today's win was solely the result of the Evening Post seller on the corner of William Street having told Alan Curtis yesterday that a win was due, even though, as his colleague said, 'we couldn't have played worse'. Quite where they were when the game was actually in progress we have no idea.

• Roger Freestone : 7 Deserved his clean sheet on his 500th appearance
• Lee Jenkins : 7 Good control and distribution, and looked a threat when moved to left midfield with 30 mins left
• Michael Howard : 7 Solid, but doubtful he showed enough to keep out D. Smith when he recovers from injury
• Terry Evans : 7 Looked more composed today at sweeper
• David Theobald : 7 Excellent Swans league debut. Again good control and distribution
• Neil Sharp : 7 One or two lapses but generally very steady
• Paul Reid : 7 100% committed, yet another solid game
• Gareth Phillips : 6 Tenacious as ever and covered huge amount of ground today
• Andrew Mumford : 6 25/1 looked generous for first/last goalscorer
• Jamie Wood : 8 Didn't stop running from the first minute until his substitution. No arguments with MOM award
• James Thomas : 6 Again gave 100% - few if any chances
• SUBS
• John Williams : 6 Did ok for 30 minutes, some nice touches
• David Moss : Only on for a few minutes, one lovely header
• Jonathan Keaveny : Not sure if he had a touch

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