Match report

A damp, miserable night for the first leg of the LDV Vans Southern Area semi final.

Swans were without the cup tied Tom Williams and Rory Fallon and had a further blow with loan signing Brent Sancho's registration not being completed in time for him to start. That meant Alan Tate going to centre half and Adrian Forbes playing right back. In midfield DarrenWay was preferred to club captain Roberto Martinez.



Side- Gueret, Forbes, Tate, Monk, Ricketts, Britton, Robinson, Way, McLeod, Akinfenwa, Trundle. Subs- Murphy, MacDonald, Martinez, Bond, Knight.

Colchester became the first visiting team to play twice at the Liberty Stadium and it was they who had the better start. Colchester showed exactly why they have been the surprise package of Division One this year. They operated very much as a unit, defending in two banks of four with the four midfield players also getting forward at every opportunity.

It was Colchester that had the games first real chance when neat interplay just outside the box left Garry Monk for dead and the rest of the defence was caught flat footed and Colchester should really have scored but the eventual shot was deflected for a corner.

Swans didn't manage a shot at goal until the 28th minute when Andy Robinson struck a shot from 25 yards that was easily saved by Dean Gerken in the Colchester goal.



On 33 minutes Colchester looked to have taken a well deserved lead when the excellent Chris Iwelumo was left unmarked at the far post and made no mistake heading home a deep cross from the right. The linesman's flag was both a huge let off and relief.

Swans did break out of the stranglehold that Colchester had on the game for Bayo Akinfenwa to have an effort well saved by Gurken and a couple of minutes later it was Bayo that gave the Swans the lead. There appeared little danger as arrived at Bayo waist high and at speed. Bayo pulled the ball down perfectly with his right foot and with everyone expecting a shot from 15 yards Bayo decided to try to beat the centre half. It looked the wrong decision but Bayo fired in the shot through the centre half's legs and seemed to catch Gurken napping as the ball crept into the corner of the net.

Colchester, unsurprisingly, dominated the remainder of the half and must have wandered how the hell they went in 1-0 down at half time. They had dominated possession, had controlled the midfield and dealt with Swans long ball tactics all too easily. Swans were crying out for somebody to put their foot on the ball and pass it. Meanwhile Roberto Martinez watched from the bench.



Swans looked much brighter at the start of the second half and Lee Trundle was finally starting to find time and space and weave his magic. It was Lee Trundle who then almost put Swans 2-0 up after some excellent control before a trademark run and shot, that Gurken did well to keep out.

Colchester then almost grabbed an equaliser when Garry Monk misread a ball over the top and let Iwelumo get away. Willy Gueret reacted quickly and claimed the ball just in front of Iwelumo.

Lee Trundle then had a clear chance after being put through by a defenders poor back pass, but Trunds shot was straight at Gurken who was able to push the ball behind for a corner.



Roberto Martinez replaced Kevin McLeod on 66 minutes and just one minute later Lee trundle hobbled off to be replaced by Leon Knight.

Sam Ricketts, who had looked out of sorts all night, signalled to come off on 74 minutes but his long walk off was slowed by him stopping three times to be physically sick on the field. He looked dreadful as he was eventually led off by the club Doctor. Sam was replaced by Shaun MacDonald. Shaun went left midfield with Andy Robinson dropping back to full back.




Shaun MacDonald had a couple of long range efforts as Swans looked for the second goal, but the goal never came and swans had to settle for the 1-0 score line.

After being outplayed for 45 minutes Swans had shown a vastly improved second half performance and had just about shaded things since the break. Having kept a clean sheet Swans will just about be favourites to get through to the Millennium Stadium when they play ay Layer Road next week.



Ratings

Gueret 8- Excellent game, even distributed the ball well tonight.

Forbes 8- Asked to play in an unfamiliar role and let nobody down.
Tate 7 - Back at centre half for the first time in ages and had a decent game.
Monk 7 - Started poorly against a difficult opponent but came out on top in the end.
Ricketts 4- Dreadful game but could be excused if he felt as bad as he looked when he went off.

Britton 6- Game past him by first half, but another who got better second half.
Way 6 - A terrier in midfield but overrun first half.
Robinson 6 - Played in 3 positions and never really at home tonight in any of them.
McLeod 6- Tried hard but had little influence on the game.

Akinfenwa 7- Worked hard all night.
Trundle 6 - Outnumbered and out muscled first half.

Subs-
Martinez 6 - Helped Swans retain midfield control in the second half.
Knight 6- Never really got into the game. MacDonald 7- Won plenty of challenges and a couple of decent shots.

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