Match report

Swansea City v Cheltenham Town - Match Report Nigel Gigg
Match Pictures by Andrew Thomas


After an indifferent start to the season Kenny Jackett took the decision to start with Lee Trundle on the bench after his two goal return to action in the Reserves midweek.

Cheltenham arrived with an identical record to our own, of one win and two losses.

Warm sunshine and a decent crowd were in place for a game all Swans fans felt was the first of our must win games.

Alan Tate started at right-back with Stuart Jones joining Garry Monk in the middle of defence. Hard to say if this was tactical on Jackett's behalf, or merely to stop Monk and Tate coming to blows after arguing their way through ninety minutes in the centre of defence last week at Macclesfield.

Forty-one minutes and Robinson had a snap shot from twelve yards, but it lacked power and direction, and gave Higgs an easy save.

A minute later Nugent hit an excellent dipping volley that the keeper pawed onto and over the bar. From the resulting corner, Connor hit the outside of the post with a looping header.

You would have thought it was a matter of time before Swans got the equaliser, but on the stroke of half-time Cheltenham striker Kayode Odejayi had a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 after pulling Monk back (missed by the referee). He had a one-on-one with Gueret, who saved well with his legs.

On the balance of the first half, Swans had had the bulk of the play, the corner count was 8-0 in favour of the Swans, but all too often we are not turning possession into meaningful shots on target.

Cheltenham for their part were unable to retain possession, yet were 1-0 up.

No changes at half-time and the one player we all knew could turn the game around continued to languish on the bench.

On forty-nine minutes a clear opportunity for Adrian Forbes, but he hit his volley over the bar when again, at the very least he should have forced a save from the keeper.

Finally on fifty-five minutes Jackett responded to the chants of 'sort it out', replacing Forbes with Maylett, and Connor with Trundle. Trundle's introduction was greeted with a huge ovation.

Almost immediately Trundle released Maylett with a back heel, and his cross was almost turned by Nugent. It was clearly the best Swans move of the game, and orchestrated by Trundle.

Lee Trundle almost scored himself on sixty minutes with a sweetly struck left foot volley from a ball dropping over his shoulder, and Alan Tate almost scored with a header, which was cleared off the line. The Swans were continuing to press forward at every opportunity.

The euphoria and increase of pace provided by the double substitution was just beginning to fade, when on seventy-five minutes Lee Trundle broke through to the left of goal from an Andy Robinson free kick, and fired past the despairing reach of Higgs.

Cheltenham were hanging on now, and there were a couple of long stoppages for "injuries" to Cheltenham players.

With ten minutes left Maylett did well with a run and shot that was turned behind by Higgs for a corner.

Swans looked the most likely to score, but failed to create any further chances - so another two points dropped, and many left wondering if Kenny Jackett's reluctance to start Lee Trundle had cost us the points.


Gueret - 7 - Unlucky with the goal, but did nothing else wrong.
Tate - 7 - Again, unlucky that the goal came from his area, but a very assured performance.
Monk - 8 - Marshalled the defence and didn't put a foot wrong.
Jones - 6 - After a dreadful performance midweek for the Reserves, Jones bounced back well.
Ricketts - 8 - Excellent performance, comfortable both in defence and coming forward.

Forbes - 5 - Saw plenty of the ball, but all too often failed to get his crosses into the right area.
Britton - 6 - Never stopped trying, did well first half, but lost possession too often.
O'Leary - 6 - Failed to boss the midfield as he has in previous games.
Robinson - 5 - A long way off his best and never really got involved. Robinson looks to be the biggest casualty of our new style of play, with the game bypassing him too often.

Nugent - 6 - Battled throughout, but too similar in style to Paul Connor in a partnership which does not look as if it will be successful.
Connor - 5 - As above.


Subs:
Maylett - 7 - Looked lively and far more threatening than Adrian Forbes, although having Trunds as a foil made life easier for him.
Trundle - 9 - His introduction changed the game, and had he scored a second would only have added to Jackett's embarrassment.

On our way home from the game today it was interesting to hear Lee Trundle on the radio express his disappointment in our new style of play, and stating how he preferred the ball played to his feet. He accepted Jackett's right to play his style of play, if it were to bring results. Unfortunately, it's not!

Swansea City v Cheltenham Town - Match Report Gary Martin
Match Pictures by Andrew Thomas

Entertainment it wasn’t. Perhaps the lyrics of the last song before kick off were a warning: ‘people say we monkey around’.

Swans lined up 4-4-2 with

My first chance to see the Swans this season and not much had changed at the Vetch. At 2:45 there were more sipping ale behind the North Bank than on it. Familiar scenes of Ian Wishart with the other tele-tubbies but a newer tele-tubby too in yellow shirt and orange bib?

The pre-match warm-up saw the Swans doing far more drills than previously and only having the ball for 5 minutes or so. A sign of the times.

Couldn’t help noticing a new aerial/transmitter half way up one of the floodlight pylons which puzzled me – until the game started – then I realised it was to monitor the altitude of the ball.

The first half was pretty grim affair with very little entertainment. Those looking at pure statistics will be forgiven for thinking that Swansea were rampant judging by the corner count. But most of these corners came from Forbes dreadful crossing attempts.

Tate who moved to right back to accommodate Stuart Jones, seemed to enjoy the extra freedom this gave him to attack – but he was at fault for the goal when he lost the ball on one such foray which led to a speculative but spectacular shot by McCann from 30 yards out. Gueret might also be partly blamed for being too far off his line as the ball flew into the top far corner.

Swansea’s main route of attack was ONE with balls being aimed at Nugent and Connor to flick on. They had some success at this but far too frequently penalised for fouling their markers in the process.

When the ball did find itself wide, it was virtually all down the right wing. This was my first viewing of Forbes, and if this performance was typical, probably one of my last. Never have I seen a winger with less guile; virtually EVERY cross he attempted was blocked by a defender.

In contrast, Robinson was isolated out wide on the left and on the few occasions he did see the ball, he often tried to do too much.

Forbes’ most successful effort was when one of his blocked crosses hit an opponents elbow and free kick was awarded. From this, Nugent flashed a header just over the bar.

Next it was Connor’s turn to be thwarted when from a short corner, his shot was tipped away by the fingertips of the diving Higgs. The resulting scramble saw the post come to the rescue of Cheltenham – although I think the keeper and full back on the line had it covered.

Most of the excitement came in the last few minutes of the half when Connor again half volleyed onto the crossbar as their defence backed off and backed off.

There was still time for Cheltenham to threaten and only a point blank save by Gueret kept the score at 1-0.

I thought that both our central defenders had a torrid time against Bellamy and in hindsight, woulkd have left out Jones and played 3-5-2 on today’s evidence.

The team was booed off by some at half-time after a very non- entertaining 45 minutes.

It was so bad that the cabbage patch were urging the whole of the Swans bench in turn to give them a wave – this while the match was going on! There were regular rousing choruses/tributes to Roberto Martinez and the other demi-god Lee Trundle, but Jackett, Jackett give us a wave didn’t figure.

I seem to recall ‘Lee Trundle’s a paki’ and ‘Sam Hammam give us a wave’ but my sensory deprivation may have been playing tricks with me. If these classics aren’t in the ‘Vetch Boxed Set’ it will be a travesty.

Talk at half-time was of Jackett’s tactics, team selection and progress – all of it derogatory.

The pattern of the second half followed much the same as the first and it was obvious that a change was needed long before the Wind Street Male Voice Choir urged Jackett to bring on Trundle.

Before this could happen, Forbes blasted what looked like a sitter, high over the bar from 7 yards.

Trundle replaced Connor who had done OK in the ‘system’ we played, but the essential substitution was Maylett for Forbes. Give the amount of ball that Forbes that was fed, I can only think what a field day Stuart Roberts would have had in his position.

This double substitution had the desired effect and soon crosses starting flying in to the middle where, Higgs was called on to make several sharp saves. He managed this with aplomb and some luck – in equal parts.

With Cheltenham content to sit back and waste time by fouling or going down at the slightest pretence, the Swansea pressure continued to build.

With Robinson fouled again some 30 yards out, the resulting free kick was a chance for a Robinson rocket. I was surprised when he didn’t take it quickly as he could easily have caught out their unprepared keeper. Instead the ‘Scally connection’ proved too strong; he floated the ball over their flat back four to Trundle on its edge and the ball fell perfectly for him to volley past their keeper.

The mood of the crowd lifted but nothing could disguise the poor entertainment we’d witnessed all afternoon.

In the end, we perhaps could have won it but I’m not convinced it would have been totally deserved.

I’ll certainly be thinking twice about travelling 24 miles on a cold wet day/evening if this is the standard of entertainment that’s going to be on show – but perhaps extrapolating from just one match is a little unfair. Make some room for me in the jury room.

Player ratings:

Gueret 6 – could be at partial fault for their goal. One good point blank save but some dodgy kicking too.
Tate 6 – seemed to enjoy a freer role but KJ will not be happy with his part in the build up to their goal
Monk 6 – not under too much pressure second half but came off 2nd best against Bellamy.
Jones 4 – improved towards the end of the game but his limitations were cruelly exposed time and again by the Cheltenham attack
Ricketts 7 – impressed me not only with his composure and control but also with the venom he puts into a tackle.
Forbes 4 – I’m sure I’ve read that Luton fans were horrified to see him go?
O’Leary 8 – man of the match in a mediocre team performance
Britton 7 – some good runs and managed to wind up quite a few off the opponents
Robinson 7 – tried a lot of things – a few too many at times
Connor 6 – won a lot of flick ons but no one was reading them well
Nugent 6 – ditto for Connor
Subs: Trundle 7 – took his goal well and give at least the crowd a lift and probably the team
Maylett 7 – looked world class – compared to Forbes – but in reality was 3rd division standard.


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