Match report

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Swansea City 0-0 Port Vale

Our poor run of form now extends to 4 games with just 2 points from a maximum of 12 available. Surely a home game against a struggling Port Vale would see the Swans return to winning ways.

After the nasty injuries picked up by Lee Trundle and Owain Jones at Swindon, Kenny Jackett would have surprised many in dropping Adebayo Akinfenwa and starting with the unlikely partnership of Paul Connor and Adrian Forbes. Alan Tate came back from suspension allowing Kevin McLeod to go back to his more familiar role on the left of midfield. New signing Tom Williams started on the bench.



Side- Gueret, Tate, Monk, Iriekepen, Ricketts, Britton, Martinez, Robinson, McLeod, Connor, Forbes.
Subs- Murphy, Austin, Williams, Goodfellow, Akinfenwa.

Port Vale started with a bang and almost caught the Swans cold. Chris Birchall had a great opportunity after just 2 minutes when the Swans defence failed to deal with a corner and allowed Birchall a free shot at goal that Willy Gueret did well to hang onto.



It took Swansea 10 minutes to get going and mount their first serious threat on the Vale goal. Excellent approach play between Paul Connor and Leon Britton ended with a cross from Connor that Adrian Forbes just failed to get on the end of.

Andy Robinson, who once again was starting to look our most likely scorer, had a left foot shot that went wide of the post, but Swans were now very much on top.

The midfield battle looked to be going Swansea's way and they were able to mount attack after attack. However, we were totally lacking in composure in the final third of the field.

The best chance of the half fell to Sam Ricketts, who started the move himself, but his effort from 15 yards lacked power.



Half time would have given Kenny Jackett much to think about and he took the brave decision to make a double substitution for the start of the second half. Adrian Forbes, who had had a poor game was replaced by Adebayo Akinfenwa, and Kevin McLeod, who had played well in patches, was replaced by Marc Goodfellow.

Jackett's changes almost paid dividends within a minute when Adebayo Akinfenwa laid the ball to Andy Robinson, who lifted the ball over the top of the defence and into the path of Paul Connor. He was just beaten to the ball by Mark Goodlad but both Connor and Goodlad needed treatment after a clash.

Vale had a brief spell of pressure before Swans again regained control of the game and laid siege to the Vale goal. The were shots from Goodfellow, Akinfenwa and Robinson but none really troubled Goodlad in the Vale goal.

The problems were again lack of width in the play and a lack of composure in the final third.



After 62 minutes Izzy Iriekepen stretched to try to prevent a throw in and seemed to turn his ankle. He was replaced immediately and was carried of in a great deal of pain. Izzy was replaced by Kevin Austin.

A few minutes later and Swans had their best chance of the game. A superb cross from Marc Goodfellow on the left wing found the head of Adebayo Akinfenwa, but under little pressure he headed wide from 10 yards. It was a poor miss from a player lacking confidence in front of goal.

The game became more and more frustrating with Swans continued lack of composure and guile and the mood was not helped by an over fussy referee who had players and management from both sides scratching their heads in disbelief at some of his decisions.



As with Swindon on Saturday, after dominating the game Swans almost gifted the game to Vale in the last few minutes. Sam Togwell caught our defence asleep and was through on goal. Willy Gueret should have been first to the ball but dithered and as Togwell was about to shoot, Sam Ricketts intervened with a well timed challenge. Togwell responded quickest and got back to his feet and rolled the ball past Gueret only for Alan Tate to make a terrific clearance from the line.

Swans huffed and puffed their way to the final whistle but it was one of those days when we could have played until midnight and not scored.

Ratings –

Gueret - 6 Still not at his best.

Tate 8 – Excellent game capped by a terrific goal line clearance.
Monk 7 - Marshalled defence as well as normal.
Iriekepen 7 – Injury looks serious.
Ricketts 7 – Did well in defence and attack.

Britton 7- Usual effort and commitment.
Robinson 7 – Again our most potent threat on goal.
Martinez 7 – Bossed the midfield.
McLeod 6 – Played well in patches, but hasn't grabbed hold of games as he did earlier in the season.

Connor 5 – All effort but little result.
Forbes 4 – Needs to slow down and think sometimes.

Subs
Goodfellow 6 – Needs to be more involved. Plenty of shots on goal but needs to demand the ball at times.
Akinfenwa 5 – Missed yet another chance.









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