Match report

After the disappointing performance and result at Yeovil last week, Swans had the chance to bounce back against 16th placed Oldham.

Swans continued to struggle with injuries with Kevin McLeod and Owain Jones return delayed a further week and Garry Monk joining them after picking up, yet again, another injury in training.



Adebayo Akinfenwa returned from suspension to partner Lee Trundle in attack and Marc Goodfellow was preferred to Andy Robinson on the left of midfield.

A beautiful autumn day greeted the teams on a pitch that looked to have stood up well to 30 oversized guys chasing a strange shaped ball on this surface just 18 hours earlier.

Side- Gueret, Tate, Iriekepen, Austin, Ricketts, Britton, Martinez, Bean, Goodfellow, Trundle, Akinfenwa. Subs- Murphy, O'Leary, MacDonald, Robinson, Forbes.



Kevin Austin almost gifted a goal to Oldham in the first 20 seconds when his weak back header looked to be falling short of Willy Gueret in the Swansea goal. However, Willy made good ground to beat Oldham's Andy Liddell to the ball.

Swans recovered from the early scare and soon looked the better side. Lee Trundle was causing some panic in the Oldham defence with his trickery. It seemed even in the early stages that Oldham had come for a draw, as they packed their defence and left their 2 strikers isolated.

Swans first chance came on 10 minutes when Lee Trundle picked up a headed flick on from Adebayo Akinfenwa and Trundle's excellent cross found Marcus Bean 10 yards out but with Bean appearing to have a free header Leon backed into him and Bean's header went well wide.



With Oldham defending in numbers Trundle and Akinfenwa were getting little time or space. Swans answer was to attack down the wings and whilst Leon Britton was doing this down the right, Marc Goodfellow was lying too deep and looked jaded even in the early stages.

Chances were few and far between and the first shot to be saved in the game wasn't until the 25th minute when a low drive from 20 yards by Marcus Bean was turned around for a corner by Day in the Oldham goal.

Goodfellow finally got involved a minute or so later but after a nice touch on the edge of the box he was pulled back as he was about to shoot at goal. Surprisingly Lee Trundle let captain Roberto Martinez take the free kick, which was well struck and bent over the wall and only just wide of the post.



There was very little goalmouth action from there up until half time and Kenny Jackett would have his work cut out to change things around so Swans could breakdown a stubborn defence. Swans had lacked guile and as they had at the first half at Yeovil seemed unable to change the gameplan to adapt to circumstances.

For the start of the second half, Adrian Forbes replaced an out of touch Marc Goodfellow and Swans switched to 4-3-3 with Forbes going upfront and Leon Britton going central. Whilst the extra attacker would take pressure of Trundle and Akinfenwa, Swans now lacked any form of width and it was disappointing that neither Sam Ricketts nor Alan Tate were getting forward regularly in support.

The clearest chance Swans had then fell to Izzy Iriekepen, when he headed a Roberto Martinez free kick wide of the post.

A bit of edge crept into the game with Adrian Forbes and the Football League's oldest player at 41 years of age, David Eyres, started a feud that ended with the booking of both in separate incidents.



Kenny Jackett, who was serving a touchline ban, was keeping in touch with the bench by telephone and soon sent on the message to pull Forbes back to midfield, reverting to a 4-4-2. Forbes was guilty of trying to play everything at 100 mph, when often to slow things down and look for the simple pass was the better option.

With 20 minutes left Andy Robinson replaced Roberto Martinez but this change like the one earlier had little effect. Oldham continued to sit back and their own attacks were few and far between.

Swans had one further chance which again fell to Izzy Iriekepen, but again his header was weak.

Despite the vast majority of possession it was very disappointing that Swans failed to put any real threat on the Oldham goal in the last 10 minutes.

So another poor performance for which it was difficult to find a reason. But it seemed too many players had off days and Oldham were the first team we have played at the New Stadium who had come to defend. It was reminiscent of so many games at the Vetch last season and it was disappointing we could not find the key to unlock Oldham's defence. The referee Mr Joslin did not help matters with a petulant and inconsistent performance.



Finally it was again sad to report that about 150 Swans fans again thought it was a good idea to congregate by the Oldham coaches after the game. There were unpleasant scenes and it seemed these so called fans were close to storming the Oldham fans and were only held back by a line of frightened looking stewards. The Swans fans eventually dispersed when 2 police vans arrived on the scene.

When Swans fans travel away, thankfully we never have this kind of aggravation from home fans. Why to we have to be different? When will this section of our so called fans wake up and not treat every away supporter as a target. These fans give the club and the City of Swansea a bad reputation and as I have said before the club's efforts to have games unpoliced is likely to be doomed by the action of these idiots.

Ratings

Gueret 6- Very little to do, but never looked completely assured.

Tate 5 - After an excellent run of games, an off day today.
Iriekepen 6 - Defended well enough but 2 poor misses.
Austin 6 - Solid as usual but poor distribution.
Ricketts 5 - Poor performance.

Britton 7 - Constant threat.
Martinez 6- Some way off his best.
Bean 8 - Excellent. Won possession time and again.
Goodfellow 4 - Hope he was at the Trust Race Night, because he certainly wasn't at the races today.

Akinfenwa 6- Did win a fair share of headers but his close control let him down.
Trundle 6 - One of those days when nothing comes off for Trunds.

Subs
Forbes 5- Needs to realise he doesn't have to do everything at 100 mph.
Robinson 5 - Offered little.

Swansea: Gueret, Ricketts, Austin, Tate, Iriekpen, Martinez (Robinson 72), Britton, Goodfellow (Forbes 45), Bean, Akinfenwa, Trundle. Subs Not Used: Murphy, O'Leary, MacDonald.

Booked: Forbes.

Oldham: Day, Forbes, Scott, Hall, Branston, Wellens, Warne, Hughes, Eyres, Liddell, Beckett (Porter 78). Subs Not Used: Killen, Tierney, Taylor, Smith.

Booked: Scott, Eyres.

Att: 14,029

Ref: P Joslin (Nottinghamshire).

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