Match report

Swansea 2 Hartlepool 2

One of the Famous Five was celebrating a birthday, a driver leaving the car park as I was entering handed me his all day ticket, and when I got to Macari's for dinner, my table was laid out waiting for me. I thought 'this could be a good day', but something inside of me was flashing warning signs. Those players remaining from last season must still be having their own nightmares and visions of Jason Jones picking the ball out of the net seven times from our last encounter with Hartlepool, and with them riding high at this early stage of the season, caution was flowing around the ground in abundance. As always however there would have been the optimists hoping for a repeat of our own 8-0 drubbing of the Monkey Hangers way back on April Fool's Day (mmmmmm!!) in 1978.

The line up:

Freestone
Evans – Sharp - O'Leary – Theobald – Howard
Moss – Cusack – Reid
Keaveny – Wood

Subs:

Marsh – Williams – Phillips – D Smith – Murphy

It was a fairly lively opening, but few chances were created early on.

By the time we went one goal down on 13 minutes, Phillips had already replaced Sharp as a result of an ankle injury. The finish by Tinkler was good, giving Freestone little hope of stopping it, but he should never have been given the chance to score in the first place as the ball bounced around and across the area for far too long. We seem to have the ability to smash the ball up field almost at will on occasions, but usually these options are taken on the wrong occasions, and when clearing our lines should be our main aim, we mess about far too much on the ball in dangerous positions. We will be punished continually and we have to sort this out.

Our inability to look for a solid central defender due to the transfer window system does not augur well for the coming 4 months. There is no confidence in the defence of any description, and if Cusack is intent, and he rightly should be at the moment, in playing each game, then he could do a lot worse than plant himself in the centre of defence and get some organisation and determination into our game there. He is capable of winning the ball in the air, and he is tenacious on the ground, something our other defenders could do well to learn from – and quickly. It's not always pretty, and he rarely takes on opponents, but his effort cannot be faulted.

Throughout the game he had to swim against the tide of refereeing decisions on his challenges with the Hartlepool players, but one thing is for certain with Cusack, he makes his feelings well known to the officials and the opposition.

The Swans defence has an air of desperation about it these days, including the previously unmoveable giant Freestone, and this was fairly evident from the start. We do not have bad players, but we have players who play badly on occasions, and our lack of composure on the ball is quite startling.

We still believe that we have a midfield and an attack that can create and score goals, but we always seem to be playing catch up, and generally the team's performance is poor. Whilst we are desperately in need of a defender or two, we have attackers who can score goals, but we really need to establish a pattern of play that will draw the best out of each of them. We also by-pass the midfield too often playing kick-and-chase and relying on the players with pace rather than playing football to get ourselves into good positions.

We seem to have lost the appetite to fight generally, although even with a relatively tame performance as we saw today, we managed to collect a further four yellow cards. Having said that, the referee once again was more intent on booking players for casting an unpleasant glance than for scything down or sandwiching a Swans player, but we are becoming accustomed to that.

Cusack's well deserved, and equally well taken equalising header on 27 minutes did at least stir up the ever decreasing, and now very disappointing crowd of 3,370 and when Wood took us into the lead with a nicely placed penalty on 40 minutes, following a defender having his own game of Volleyball, it started to look as if we might actually be able to build ourselves into a match winning position, if we kept our heads.

That theory was shot by a shot within a minute when Watson scored a goal very similar to Tinkler's from a very similar situation. Will we never learn?

With a 2-2 scoreline at half time, the crowd could not complain at the number of goals that were being seen at the Vetch any longer, but could have some disgruntled murmurings about the number we continue to concede. Many of the complaints were aired from two rows behind us throughout the game. He was a little confused and disappointed when Casey was released at the end of last season as he no longer had a target for his frustration. To date during this campaign he has chosen to have a go at all 11 on the field at any one time. I wonder where he goes when he wants to enjoy himself?

The second half was played out in a similar fashion to the first, although there was a lot more urgency in the Swans game for short periods. Williams replaced the hard working Keaveny on 60 minutes and let's hope that his immediate departure down the player's tunnel doesn't herald any further injury problems. Williams certainly looked sharper and hungrier in his game today than he has for some time, and in an exciting 10 minute spell, Moss was unlucky with an effort that went just wide when he had no time to adjust to a shot, and then with a looping header that hit the far upright, and which would have resulted in a goal had anyone been following up as they should.

Cusack left the field a couple of minutes from the end to loud applause that was fully justified. He led by example throughout the game, and must be extremely frustrated by what he sees going on around him on the field. It would be great to have a settled side, but with injury (and let's hope that James Thomas returns very soon) and the number of yellow cards we are receiving, that is likely to be a luxury that Cusack will not enjoy too often.

If we can do little about the defence, then we must play to our strengths up front, and use the ability of Moss in the air. We feel that he is playing too deep, and that he could feed the striking partnership throughout the game if given the chance. His lack of sustained pace should not be an issue in that position, he can win good ball and direct his headers at will, but his midfield role is less productive.

Today wasn't a spectacle, but we got a point from a game that maybe we should have won, but beforehand we probably expected to lose. Hartlepool were a far more composed footballing side than we were, but as everyone has said, it is the results and not necessarily the performance that matters. We need to get up the table and away from the precarious position we are in at the moment, but that's not going to be easy for as long as we leak goals as we are at the moment.

As a parting shot, will someone from The Travel House, or SDJ Painting and Decorating Services please please please tell us which match they were watching and what the score was. For them to give O'Leary this week's award as Man of the Match, it can't have been the game that the rest of us saw.

Player Ratings


Freestone - 5- Is he responsible for lack of trust between himself and central defenders or are they to blame?
Evans - 4 - Poor game, lacking confidence, poor distribution.
Theobald - 5 - Looked all at sea against a quality strike force.
O'Leary  - 3 - 'Man of the Match' - My A**e. Even he would have laughed at MoM nomination.
Howard - 5 – Maybe the pick of the defence today, but that's not a great accolade
Reid - 6- Never really involved as we seemed to want to bypass midfield all afternoon
Phillips – 5 - Never say die, but little else. 
Moss – 7 - Always a threat going forward. Others around him need to realise his runs and ability to find space.
Cusack – 7 - Lead by example. Gave 120%. 
Wood  - 6 - Fought all afternoon, touch could be better. 
Keaveny – 7 - Good runs but again, poor touch. Has good potential.
 
Williams - 7 - Worried defenders immediately to came on. Looked like the Willo of old. 

Sharp not rated as only on for 12 minutes, Murphy only on for 2 minutes.