Match report

Notts County 1 Swans 0 - Peter Charles, Pictures by Andrew Thomas

It is difficult to put any gloss on it - this performance was indescribably awful. From start to finish we looked shapeless, dispirited and badly organised. Against a Notts County side which looked chronically poor themselves, in this desperately weak division, we frankly played like relegation contenders rather than promotion hopefuls. Much work has to be done to this ragged looking team if we are to salvage the season, because if we continue to play like this, even a play off place would be a very ambitious target. The Swans supporters maintained pretty good vocal support throughout the game, but many of them booed at the end. And who can blame them? How else could they get their frustration across? How else could the send a message to Kenny Jackett, who had already fled down the tunnel, that this was just not acceptable?

The Swans line up was a little unfamiliar, and I suppose this offers some degree of comfort, with injuries (presumably) to Martinez, Monk and Austin forcing yet another defensive shuffle. Having said this, the availability of the three new signings (panic signings?), added to the returning Forbes and the (reportedly) rejuvenated O'Leary from injury, should have balanced this up. The 4-4-2 looked like this:

The first half, played admittedly in difficult conditions, was one of the most shapeless and generally appalling I have witnessed this season. Both sides seemed unable to generate any fluency or pattern to their play, and even passing to a player in a like-coloured shirt seemed well beyond most of the protagonists. With neither midfield able to take any firm control, incidents were few and far between. Kris O'Leary latched on to a scrap after four minutes and struck a firm shot well wide. On the quarter hour a decent Swans move (the only one of the half) saw Trundle flick the ball through to Thorpe, who spread it wide to Forbes. Bearing down on goal, the wide man's shot was blocked. In between, a weak effort from County's Shaun McFaul was deflected wide by Ricketts.

Shortly after this, Gurney got caught out a couple of times in the space of a minute; on both occasions this resulted in dangerous crosses being delivered into the Swans goal, but the home side had no-one with the determination or quality to get on the end of them. The Swans flashed in a couple of long-range efforts from Gurney and Trundle neither of which tested the keeper. And a few minutes afterwards a comical piece of Swans defending, where the ball was skied aimlessly in an attempted clearance, almost presented Glyn Hurst with an opening, only for the County striker to hit an air shot. The half time whistle brought a welcome conclusion to a dire 45 minutes.

It was clear at half time that the opposition was there for the taking - any team with any real quality or sense of conviction could have put them away comfortably. But we started the second half in the same mode as we finished the first. Notts, however, upped their game a little, and threatened us within the first two minutes of the half, a weak effort from Hurst bobbling through to Gueret. The Swans responded with one neat move which gave Forbes a chance to cut in on goal, but he lost the opportunity with (guess what) a poor first touch. Soon afterwards, Trundle cut in from the left and hit a shot so wide that it threatened the corner flag more than the net.

On 50 minutes the game unexpectedly burst to life with the home side taking a lead which, frankly, the match didn't deserve. Rob Ullathorne outstripped Gurney with ease before delivering a deep cross towards full back David Pipe; he played the ball back across goal to Mark Stallard who fired home with ease from close range. A poor goal for the Swans to concede, but when you fail to put pressure on teams, you are always likely to let one in at the other end. The goal sparked a burst of enthusiasm for the home side, and almost woke up their crowd. They nearly doubled the lead two minutes later when Stefan Oakes struck a low shot on the turn, which went narrowly wide.

The Swans response was a double substitution. The ineffective Thorpe was replaced by Connor in a like for like move. But more surprisingly, our most potent looking striker (Forbes) was replaced by Britton, forced once again to play out of position on the wing against a fairly robust left back. But it was the home team who responded better to the substitution, with a shot from Hurst being cleared brilliantly off the line by Izzy before Paul Bolland hit the rebound just over the bar. This reprieve spurred us into some action and we managed to force a bit of pressure as Britton and McLoed began to see some of the ball; most of our crosses though were flat in trajectory and didn't really threaten the home defence - a failing which was typified by a weak Connor header which was simply caught, rather than saved, by the keeper. However, on 65 minutes we did force one serious save from Deeney in the home goal, and what a save it was. Some tenacious work by McLeod on the left saw him draw a foul. He delivered a decent free kick which was met by a firm downward header from Izzy. The visiting fans were almost celebrating when Deeney managed to stretch out a hand at turn in round the post - a miraculous save, but we need to be forcing more than one save in the 90 minutes from opposition keepers!

Soon after this Anderson was substituted to make way for Andy Robinson. This led to a reshuffle. O'Leary dropped to the back four, Ricketts moved to left back and Robbo slotted in to centre midfield alongside...hang on...who else was playing there? Oh yes, some guy called Bean, who never interfered with play once. Again, we forced a bit of pressure, and Robinson looked quite effective in flashes, showing the benefit of having midfielders who can pass the ball and run at players. Indeed, one neat through ball from Robbo set up Trundle with a half chance, and his neat turn was followed by a right foot shot into the side netting. But it was closest he had got in this game, in which he had been pretty much marked out of it with two players constantly patrolling him. Unfortunately, our static attack showed little ability capitalise on any space this might have created.

Trundle's day was typified in the 85th minute when he attempted a lamentable dive in the area, for which he was lucky not to have been booked. He's pulled off a few of those this season, notably the one at Boston which conned us two points, but his luck had run out today - perhaps that typifies our season? The last few minutes were a frustrating and shambolic series of half hearted and fairly aimless attempts to launch the ball over the top into the box. Despite four minutes added on, the home side saw the game out with ease.

Player ratings:

Gueret - 6 Little chance with goal, but would have conceded more but for Izzy
Gurney - 4 Poor distribution and "skinned" several times.
Anderson - 5 Tidy in defence but poor going forward.
Ricketts - 7 Best player on the day; looks accomplished wherever he plays in defence, and with KJ's constant defensive shuffling (enforced or otherwise) he has to.
Iriekpen - 6 A decent game, but went a bit AWOL for the goal.
Forbes - 5 Ran at the opposition a couple of times and caused them one or two problems.
McLeod - 5 Improved second half after a very ineffective first half. To be fair, he got virtually no service from midfield or from the back and had to go looking for the ball. Looks half the player Goodfellow is (but harsh to judge on one viewing)
O'Leary - 5 Broke up some attacks and worked hard; but offered virtually nothing when we were in possession.
Bean - 4 Why was he on the field? To be fair on O'Leary, his performance may have been more effective with someone better than Bean alongside him.
Thorpe - 5 And that's generous, for a striker who didn't have one attempt on goal.
Trundle - 6 Held the ball up well, and brought other players into the game
Connor - 5 Got his head on the ball once.
Britton - 6 Battled hard against his full back, but he's no winger
Robinson - 6 Our most effective midfielder on the day, but too little too late.

The more optimistic observers might argue that this would have been a draw but for one excellent save. But this would be to ignore the true failings of our performance - no presence in midfield, no cutting edge up front, no creativity anywhere, and we were rolled over by the 87th placed team in the league. Frankly, we looked badly motivated and poorly coached. Saving graces? We have one or two injuries and our new signings are still bedding in. Surely we will improve again when the team gels. We had better hope so, because today looked like relegation form from a mid-table team.



Would you like your match report printed here? Email it to the site straight after the match.
Click here to return to the main page.