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Match report


Saturday, November 01, 2003
Swansea City 2 Leyton Orient 1

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Swansea 2-1 L Orient - Match Report by Nigel Gigg



After the last two games all talk of MUST WIN games has been banned from the Gigg household this week.

With seemingly little left to look forward to this season, today's news that Stuart Roberts had signed on a month's loan was a great boost but Brian Flynn's decision to start him on the bench was something of a surprise and disappointment.

It appeared Brian Flynn would either go back to the one up front tactic against Preston and Tranmere, or try once again with Andy Robinson as a partner for Lee Trundle.

The return of Stuart Roberts wasn't enough to pull in the fans with spaces throughout the stands and North Bank, and not a single soul choosing to take advantage of the Swansea half of the West Terrace.

Side:

Freestone
Byrne - Iriekpen - Tate - Hylton
Maylett - Britton - Martinez - Coates
Trundle - Robinson

Subs: Murphy, Howard, Jones (S), Roberts, Nugent
Andy Robinson took up the strikers role and almost scored in the second minute, chipping the keeper from a difficult bouncing ball. With the ball going wide Maylett seemed to have an easy header to open the scoring but he jumped too early.

Robinson seemed to be enjoying himself up front, and on five minutes he turned on the edge of the box and struck a left foot shot that seemed destined for the top corner until the diving Glenn Morris in goal just got fingertips to it.

It seemed that Swans really did seem up for the fight with more commitment shown in the opening ten minutes than we saw in ninety minutes at Kidderminster.

The effort was clearly rewarded on twelve minutes when Orient failed to clear a corner and Lee Trundle had two opportunities the second of which he fired high into the roof of the net with his right foot.

Swans continued to dominate and must have created around ten goal scoring opportunities in the first twenty minutes.

Totally against the run of play, Orient equalised when a weak free kick chipped over the wall was dropped by Roger at the feet of Wayne Purser who scored easily. Rogers second howler in two games, had put Orient back into a game that could and perhaps should have already been out of their reach.

The remainder of the half was evenly balanced with Swans early confidence gone. Our inability to drive home an advantage had again taken its toll.

Stuart Jones replaced Shaun Byrne at the start of the second half, for what must have been an injury to Byrne, as he had looked good in the first half and had supported our attack well down the right.

Swans continued in the second half as they ended the first, lacking confidence and unable to muster a meaningful attack. Maylett in particular disappointed again and again down the right, and it was no surprise on sixty-two minutes when he was replaced by Stuart Roberts.

Trundle had a golden opportunity to score from twelve yards when fed by Andy Robinson but fired his shot well over.

On sixty-eight minutes Lee Trundle, after struggling with what appeared to be hamstring problems, was replaced by Kevin Nugent. This only seemed to drain confidence further from the players. Orient seemed to sense this as Kidderminster did on Saturday and they started to control the midfield.

After they came through their sticky patch, Swans started to put pressure on, at long last. On eighty minutes a corner was again not cleared by the Orient defence, Kevin Nugent had a chance, but missed the ball, allowing Alan Tate a shot at goal which went into the corner of the net from twelve yards.

Swans held out for the last ten minutes, with only the odd scare.

So at long last three points, but a none too convincing performance.

Roger - 4 - Could so easily have cost us another two points tonight.
Byrne - 7 - Solid performance.
Tate - 8 - Excellent game again, commanding in the air and on the ground.
Iriekpen - 7 - Best game for some time.
Hylton - 5 - Distribution awful, but did manage to get forward tonight.
Maylett - 4 - Flatters to deceive all too often.
Britton - 7 - Lively, pick of the midfield again.
Martinez - 6 - Better game, but still not quite the old Roberto.
Coates - 7 - Solid game, defended well.
Trundle - 6 - Took goal well but some way off his best.
Robinson - 9 - Outstanding, gave 100%, constant threat.

Subs:
Jones - 7 - Defended well.
Roberts - 6 - Not quite the Stuey of old but comfortably better than Maylett.
Nugent - 6 - Again a vast improvement on Saturday.

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