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Match report |
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Stevenage 2 Swansea City 1 | |
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Stevenage 2 Swansea City 1 Match Report by Peter and Bethan Charles Tonight we have quite possibly seen a glimpse of the near future. The grounds are neat and tidy, there are short queues at the burger stalls, parking is easy, and they let visiting fans into the club bar beforehand. But we still don't like it. This is the conference - and on the evidence of this performance we would struggle to stay in it, let alone get out of it. Ok let's not get too dramatic - we were missing key players, we could only muster a squad of 14 to travel, and the LDV trophy really doesn't matter. But it was our inability to raise ourselves above an average conference team, itself injury ravaged, that really brought home the reality of our predicament. The Swans line-up that capitulated tonight was: Freestone in goal, Stuart Jones, O'Leary, Thoebold and Howard at the back; a midfield of Reid, Lacey, Jenkins and the impressive Cash, and a front two of Wood and Thomas. In truth this was actually quite a bright and eventful game - a neutral would have loved it. The early exchanges saw the Swans trying to dominate possession and play to feet, with the home side taking a more direct approach. This led to a couple of half chances for Stevenage before Jenkins had the first clean strike on goal after 12 minutes, a neat volley which was excellently saved by Westhead in the home goal. But it was the home team that was making most of the early running. Firstly, a dangerous cross was headed out from under our bar by the extremely impressive Stuart Jones. Then on 17 minutes a point blank header from Howell was excellently saved, one handed, by Freestone, with little interference from our hesitant central defensive pairing. We responded with some forays of our own, mainly prompted by some surging and skillful running from midfield from the obviously talented Ben Cash - this lad could make a serious difference to our survival bid. On 25 minutes one such run saw him feed a neat through ball to Thomas, whose left foot shot was comfortably saved. But Stevenage continued to look dangerous, frequently exposing our weakness on our left side, and all too easily stealing in between our central defenders for free headers - one of which was badly fluffed by Blackwood on 40 minutes, when he really should have given the Boro the lead. But then suddenly we produced a goal of rare quality. Another surging run from Cash took him as far as the right edge of the penalty area, from where he threaded a neat ball to the over-lapping Jones. The young full back produced a first-time pinpoint cross onto the head of Thomas who powered home from close range. The contribution from Jones rounded off a very accomplished first half from this young lad - his positional play was terrific, he showed great awareness, and his timing of tackles was perfect. A real ray of hope in an otherwise very average display. The second half then confirmed our worst fears. We had never looked in control of the game, and we soon found oursleves under waves of Stevenage pressure - most of it created by our inability to hold the ball in midfield. Despite this, we created the first real opening of the half on 58 minutes. Another great run from Cash saw him fouled in a wide left position. From the free kick, Thomas got a good touch, only to see his effort bounce off the cross bar. This was a pivotal moment. We then conceded a series of unnecessary corners which our central defence made a pig's ear of clearing. From the last of these, a goal mouth scramble resulted in Simon Wormull strking home from close range. Before we had time for that to sink in, we were behind. An optimistic daisy cutter of a shot from defender Jude Stirling, who no-one chose to close down, found its way in past Roger at the near post. We responded by replacing Wood with Reid, and the ineffective Lacey with Jackson. We went 4-3-3 with Thomas, Cash and Murphy making up the front three. Our style became far more route one, and with Stevenage dropping back to hold their lead, we came close to forcing an equalsier on four occasions. Firstly, Thomas burst through in the area but managed to fire over from close range, whilst under pressure from a late(ish) tackle. Secondly, Cash found himself with a half chance on the edge of the six yard box, but he took one touch too many instead of just lashing for goal. Then with time running short, a great cross from Jones found its way to Murphy at the far post, who managed to lash the ball wide with goal gaping (though in his defence, he claimed the defender blocked it). And then in the dying minutes Murphy was put through from a long ball, but chose a deft chip when a firm drive would have been more effective, thus allowing the keeper to save. In between we could easily have let in a third, particularly in the dying moments when Stevenage managed to fluff a series of chances to round the game off. Player ratings;
Freestone - 6 Not as composed as we would like, and not sure what happened with that second goal Flynn tactics - can't really fault the style of play. He's trying to get them to play football, but is the team capable of doing what he asks of them? Was not afraid to change the system, and in fairness it nearly worked for us. Actually, I think most of the Swans fans were happy to get home rather than sit through extra time ; - ) Not too much to say in summary. At the end of the day we were not good enough to beat a poor conference team. To focus on the positive - Cash is an asset, we have found a good new full back, Thomas can score despite the performance, and Smith and Mumford should stiffen things up when they come back. But I suspect its going to be a long hard road. Still, I'd happily sacrifice tonight for three points at Carlisle!!! Stevenage 2 Swansea City 1 Match Report by Andy Donaghue Well it had all the ingredients.....LDV , rain, conference side and the ground in the middle of nowhere. the S.E jacks met up in anticipation of a dire encounter and from a effort perspective the lads in yellow supplied dire at its promising best. 115 jacks made the journey and some from Swansea (these deserve a medal) to witness our patched up side. I could go on about boro's 10 attempts at goal in the first half but their lack of quality finishing somehow saved us all a trip to highbury to watch the gooners second half. Our only glimmer of hope was a good move down the right with Thomas heading well past Wilson in the boro goal from a pin point cross. 2nd half Thinking we should go on and win the game the early part of the second half saw boro sustain long periods of pressure and it was only a matter of time before the defence was breached and a double strike on the hour finished us off. A double substitution saw Lacey replaced by Jackson and Murphy for wood. Flynn now switched a to 4-3-3 with Murphy joining Thomas and Cash for a 20 min long ball onslaught , sadly the players had no idea of this makeshift formation and the exits beckoned, Murphy came in for some stick for just being Murphy and the game was lost.
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