Match report

Player ratings and comments

Swansea City 0 Kidderminster 0

Report by Nigel Gigg, Photos supplied by Gary Martin

Nobody knew quite what to expect this afternoon, as for the first time this season Swansea lined up without the wonderful Lee Trundle. Andy Robinson, who we signed as a striker, replaced him after several outstanding displays in midfield and Roberto Martinez made a welcome return to the bench after a seven week lay-off.

Kidderminster came to the Vetch with a very poor recent record and John Williams returned to the Vetch but with only 2 weeks left on his contract this may well have been the last time Willo would play at the Vetch.

Line up- Freestone, Jenkins, Iriekpen, O'Leary, Howard, Maylett, Britton, Wilson, Johnrose, Nugent, Robinson. Subs Murphy, Smith, Jones (R), Coates, Matinez.

A smaller crowd than we have become used to greeted the teams in bright autumn sunshine. However, the crowd from the off seemed somewhat subdued and this seemed to transfer itself to the players who looked lacklustre. Whether this was down to Lee Trundle's absence we'll never know but certainly the majority of players looked far from up for the battle.

Kidderminster for their part looked a shadow of the team that totally outplayed us at the Vetch last year and we're without Bo Hendrikson who ran rings around a poor Swansea 12 months ago.

The early exchanges were of poor quality with Kidderminster defending rigidly and former Premiership referee Paul Danson providing little protection for Swansea's front line.

Incredibly after the entertainment we have seen at the Vetch this season, it took Swansea 17 minutes to have their first shot which was a poor free kick from Wilson that deflected off the wall for a corner.

There was no other incident to note until half time other than a couple of bookings for Kidderminster and Brad Maylett booked for diving.

Half time arrived and the comfort of hospitality was a welcome relief. We had easily seen the worst 45 minutes of the season. For his part Mr Danson had been equally as poor with several strange decisions. He seemed to have a problem with Kevin Nugent giving several freekicks against him including one where he was sandwiched between 2 Kidderminster players and came out with a cut to his head.

Mr Danson added insult to injury when he booked Kevin Nugent after he appeared to win an aerial challenge cleanly.

Swansea went from bad to worse and Kidderminster started to belief they could win the game. The defence was all too often at sixes and sevens with O'Leary and Howard giving the ball away needlessly time and again.

Brian Flynn replaced a poor Lenny Johnrose with Roberto Martinez on the hour and this seemed to give both the crowd and the team a lift. The passing started to flow and chances began to appear. There were very few options left on the bench and the wisdom of not having a striker of any description on the bench must be questioned. There seems little point to me in having Richard Jones as a third midfield substitute rather than give Mark Pritchard some sort of opportunity.

Eventually Swans created there first real goal scoring opportunity on 80 minutes when a brilliant through ball from Roberto Martinez was excellently taken on the chest by Kevin Nugent. He would have been disappointed to miss the opportunity presented when his left foot shot came back from the foot of the post. Mark Wilson lashed the rebound way over the bar.

The game drifted away from there and Kidderminster had the last opportunity to break the deadlock when John Williams shot just wide with only 30 seconds left of the 90 minutes.

Finally, after watching BBC's 'Grumpy Old Men' last night I have one moan that drives me insane. Why oh why do the Swans not employ ball boys at least 2 or 3 years older than those currently used and why not position these ball boys in front of the new fence on the North Bank and West Terrace. Today, time and again we waited an eternity for the ball to be chased along the terracing before coming back into play and both Brad Maylett and Roger Freestone had to climb onto the North Bank and West Terrace respectively to retrieve the ball at least once. Over the course of 90 minutes I would estimate at least 90 seconds is needlessly lost and over the course of the season this would amount to at least 30 minutes. With home form being all important this is time we can ill afford to waste.

Freestone 6 – Little to do but distribution again poor.

Jenkins 7- Started well but was dragged down to the standard of the rest.
Iriekpen 8 – Man of the Match. Strong in defence and willing to get forward whenever possible.
O'Leary 5 – Back at his worst I'm afraid to say.
Howard 5 – Gave the ball away far too often.

Maylett 5 – Just not involved enough.
Britton 6 – A poor game by his standards.
Wilson 5 – Really should do better if he is serious about getting back into the Premiership
Johnrose 5 – One header just over the bar but hardly involved apart from that.

Nugent 7 – Referee prevented him having too much of an impact.
Robinson 6 – No replacement for Trundle and never looked at home up front.

Subs
Martinez 6 – Lifted the tempo when he came on, but not surprisingly looked a little rusty.

Man of the Match – Today's ' Travel House in association with Nat West Private Banking' Man of the Match was awarded to Kristian O'Leary. Now, I hosted the Nat West Private Banking Hospitality and my next door represented Travel House at the game. Neither of us has a clue who gave the MOM award and my belief this is drawn from a tombola or picked from a hat in Swansea Market prior to the game grows week by week.

Swansea: Freestone, Jenkins, Howard, O'Leary, Iriekpen, Britton, Johnrose, Maylett, Wilson, Nugent, Robinson. Subs: Smith, Martinez, Coates, Murphy, Richard Jones.

Kidderminster: Brock, Smith, Stamps, Coleman, Hatswell, Danny Williams, Bennett, Melligan, Parrish, Ward, John Williams. Subs: Hinton, Gadsby, Shilton, Willis, Betts.

Referee: P Danson (Leicestershire)

Swansea City 0 Kidderminster 0

Flynn's selection looked reasonable enough but by half-time it was apparent that we were watching a double of last year's relegation team.

There was little width, even less creativity and a distinct lack of confidence from several individuals.

Flynn tried Robinson up front in place of the injured Trundle, but after 10 minutes it looked like this wasn't going to work - by the 20 minute mark it was obvious that it wasn't going to work.

It might have been worth trying a 4-5-1 from this point with any of the mid five having licence to join the attack when the opportunity presented itself - but this wasn't tried so we'll never know.

As the minutes ticked by you could see the confidence ebb from the players. Errors were compouded by one player after another - and most of them in our own box! Talk about living dangerously as we presented opportunity after opportunity to a woeful Kidderminster attack.

John Williams got his usual misguided worship from a section of the fans - the same fans who were thankful that his lung disease has not cleared up when put in promising situations. To be fair he did bring one good save out of Roger near the end.

Our best chance of the first half came in added time from the ex-leaping salmon, Lenny Johnrose, who rose wll enough to meet Britton's excellent cross but failed to direct the ball towards the net when very well placed.

The referee, who endlessly stopped the game, had allowed a substitutiuon, had the trainers on FOUR times for lengthy stoppages, must have bought his watch from Rattners as he only made it 2 minutes of additional time for all of that! Jeez we get 3 minutes added every game when there's be no stoppage.

Second half started the way the first ended. Careless and short passes setting up Kidderminster attacks and goal scoring opportunities.

Things were so bad at one point that even the 30 mutes who had travelled down from Kiddy burst into song.

This goaded Flynn into making the only substitution he could - choosing Martinez from Coates, Murphy, Smith & Jones. When this didn't work, he was snookered and so were the Swans.

Martinez's introduction for Johnrose (I'd have replaced Wilson) did raise the tempo and lift the team - for a while, but even Martinez caught the disease that saw Swans players playing sloppy, short and inaccurate balls all over the pitch.

A word about the pitch .. the dry surface helped Kidderminster's tactics of disrupting any sort of rhythm with the ball bouncing feet in the air from their ariel clearances. Can't we water it a few hours before to match our intended "slick" approach?

Nugent should have scored after doing all the difficult work, taking a through ball on his chest and evading the advancing keeper to see his shot rebound of the foot of the post.

0-0 was a good result on balance - we could easily have lost this one.

Ratings:
Freestone - 5 kicking was shocking and did a few dribbles which nearly
cost us dearly
Jenkins - 6 - saw a lot of the ball
O'Leary - 6 - was given the role of starting attacks from the back - how
long have I been going on about this?
Iriekpen - 6 - was as good/bad as O'Leary - but not from Aberavon (add
2)
Howard - 5 - lacked confidence once a few passes went astray
Maylett - 6 - faded very badly - had quite a good first half
Britton - 5 - has lost his way recently. Sparked when Martinez came on
but even this fizzled out like a cheap firework
Wilson - 5 - as for Britton
Johnrose - 5 - poor by his standards today. Should have scored.
Robinson - 6 - never stopped trying but given an impossible role
Nugent - 7 - marginally the MoM for his consistent 90 minute
contribution

Sub: Martinez - 6 - shone brightly ... for 5 minutes.

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