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Swansea City 2 Doncaster 0 | |
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Swansea City v Doncaster Rovers - Match Report Nigel Gigg (Pictures supplied by Phil Sumbler) The hangover from the Millennium Stadium play off final continues as Swans go into their fourth League game still seeking their first win. With Garry Monk sidelined for several months, Kenny Jackett was forced into the transfer market this week and brought in Trinidad and Tobago World Cup star Dennis Lawrence from Wrexham. He went straight into the centre of defence to partner Izzy Iriekepen. Doncaster, managed by former Swan Dave Penney also included another ex Swan and former Wales international Jason Price. Side- Gueret, Amankwaah, Iriekepen, Lawrence, Austin, Butler, Pratley, Britton, McLeod, Fallon, Trundle. Subs- Oakes, Williams, O’Leary, Akinfenwa, Knight. Swans started well and looked to have won a corner inside the first minute. With defenders and attackers taking up position Mr Bates astounded everyone with his decision to award a goal kick. It was to be the first of several baffling decisions.
Doncaster were adapting a very physical approach and with just one man up front were out to frustrate the Swans. Mr Bates was not helping matters offering plenty of free kicks but taking no further action other than greeting each offence with a sickly smile. Despite dominating the early stages it took 15 minutes before Swans managed a shot at goal with a dipping volley from Tom Butler sailing over the bar. It was a further 15 minutes before the next effort with a Lee Trundle shot on the turn again flying high over the bar. Dave Penney’s tactics were negative but proving successful as Swans were starved of attempts at goal. Just after the half hour Doncaster almost grabbed a undeserved lead. Dennis Lawrence left a through ball which Willy Gueret should have come to claim. However, Willy being Willy he stayed on his line allowing Sean Thornton to intercept. With Willy racing out he dragged his shot wide and Mr Bates again surprised everyone with his award of a Swansea free kick. Several minutes later there was a bizarre incident when the ball went out of play for a throw in. Dave Penney collect the ball in his technical area and refused to return the ball until Mr Bates had come over to speak to him. A discussion then took place between Mr Bates, Penney and the fourth official which seemed to be about the award of the free kick earlier. After much arm waving Mr Bates continued with the game taking no action against Dave Penney. Swans continued to dominate possession without looking like creating anything meaningful. As the Swans players trudged off, it would have been Dave Penney who was the happier of the managers and his tactics seemed to be going according to plan. Despite dominating the early minutes of the second half it was Doncaster who almost took the lead on 53 minutes when Willy Gueret denied Sean Thornton a certain goal by intercepting an excellent cross from the right. Kevin McLeod forced Doncaster keeper Alan Blayney into his first save which he needed to dive and push wide to keep out McLeod’s drive from fully 35 yards. On the hour Tom Butler went off with what looked like a thigh strain to be replaced by Kristian O’Leary. The substitution saw Leon Britton going out wide and O’Leary going central alongside Darren Pratley. The game was finally beginning to open up and Doncaster seemed to sense that there were 3 points for the taking. Swans were far too predictable and Fallon and Trundle were getting very little chance from a well organised defence. However, Swans were looking far more of a unit with Kris O’Leary bolstering the centre of midfield and Leon Britton starting to cause problems on the right. Leon Britton went close after an excellent run and a one two with Lee Trundle, and Trunds forced an excellent save from Blayney on the near post. Blayney seemed to stop Trundle’s shot with his face and was forced into changing his shirt that was covered in blood. With 15 minutes left Kevin McLeod and Rory Fallon, who had both been disappointing were replaced by Tom Williams and Bayo Akinfenwa. With the game seemingly stumbling to a 0-0 result, out of the blue Swans took the lead. Bayo Akinfenwa flicked a cross on to Lee Trundle who controlled a high ball well. The defender looked favourite to clear the danger only for magic daps to lift the ball over his head before side footing the ball past Blayney to put the Swans 1-0 up. Doncaster made the last of their 3 substitutions in the closing minutes but were kept at bay by some excellent defending from all the back four and with the game deep into injury time Swans sealed the victory. Leon Briton broke from defence and ran 40 yards with the ball. He lost the ball 40 yards from goal but it fell to Kevin Amankwaah. He perfectly threaded the ball through to Lee Trundle who scored from the narrowest of angles. A win is a win is a win. Three points was all important today and surely Swans will grow in confidence from this win and kick start their season.
Ratings – Gueret 6- Again
didn’t inspire confidence but a couple of excellent saves. Amankwaah 8 –
Excellent all over the park. Subs – O’Leary 7- Helped
bolster the midfield.
Swansea City v Doncaster Rovers - Match Report Paul Nicholas 19th August 2006
Could this be the game that would restore the faith that the good season anticipated by so many really is just around the corner? The disappointing start has not just rested on the results so far but also on the style of play and the apparent lack of co-ordination and creativity in the team. Another new face today in Dennis Lawrence, and yet another line up to test the fathoming skills of the fans as player combinations, positioning and the bench continue to confound. The back line today should have been capable of dealing with most things given the variety of height, muscle, speed and air to ground skills. A midfield with three wingers seemed destined to carry an element of confusion, and with probably the most static front line pairing, this could be an interesting match. A lively but unproductive start by the Swans slowly degenerated into a frustrating afternoon. The defence, to its credit, dealt with most things that came its way, and that included Izzy dealing with a rampaging Gueret when he ran out to the edge of the 18 yard box to catch a ball, and hurtled himself into Izzy and a Doncaster attacker only to spill the ball and gift an opportunity to the Doncaster striker to place it in the net. He failed to do that, and the referee failed to see that the slapstick comedy sketch he had just witnessed didn’t include foul play by any opposition player, and calmly awarded a free kick to the Swans. The officials today were downright incompetent. Whether the decisions concerned fouls, corners, throw ins, they got them wrong. They played advantage when they shouldn’t have, and smiled constantly at the players when making these dire decisions thereby irritating the proverbial out of most of them. If the assistant referees paid as much attention to what they were supposed to be watching, i.e. the game, as they do to how straight their flag arms are and the exact space between their feet when standing at ease on the touchline then maybe we’d have a higher proportion of correct decisions, and a lower number of blood pressure cases in the crowd. Mind you, when the 4th official made sure that a plastic drink bottle, which Dave Penney threw to the ground in frustration, was within the technical area I started to lose the will to live. Back to the game anyway and half time arrived with few sensible people in the crowd thinking that this was going to end anything other than goalless at best. Cue the second half and more of the same. We were giving the ball away far too often and some players were starting to receive the kind of abusive comments that should really be reserved for the referee and his cohort.
McLeod had spent large periods of the game in wide open spaces, but rarely received the ball. In the second half, he did draw two good saves out of the Doncaster keeper but the lack of awareness of some players on the ball (including him), coupled with the lack of movement of those off the ball, resulted in many wayward passes and crosses. Pratley will run all day, but as far as I can see, his game is based on receiving the ball and delivering it quickly to people who are running into space continuously. Take away the second part and you have a player who holds on to the ball whist running around in circles looking for somewhere to pass it. Twice it went back to Gueret from the half way line. Butler indicated that his hamstring was far from right and he was replaced by O’Leary. Britton moved out to the right where he immediately looked both more comfortable and threatening. With time passing slowly (well to us anyway) Bayo replaced Fallon and Williams replaced McLeod. There were reasons why any number of players could have been substituted and at that point and Trundle (who had shown some poor touches and control) was a serious candidate. Despite Knight probably wondering what he had done wrong, KJ made the decision to leave Trundle on and on 82 and 91 minutes, he won the game with two well taken goals from 6 yards. I didn’t see who put the ball through for the first goal but Amankwaah (my man of the match) made an excellent run (started by Britton), cut inside and put through an excellent pass for Trundle’s second. Such is the fickle nature of a football supporter, the endless shouts of ‘SORT IT OUT JACKETT’ at 0-0 with 9 minutes to go, were instantly replaced by ‘Kenny Jackett’s Black and white army’ at 1-0 with 8 minutes remaining. In fact, as the ball hit the net for Trundle’s first goal I swear I heard a blended rendition of SORT IT OUT………..JACKETT’S BLACK AND WHITE ARMY. Still – some went home happy, faith suitably restored, but most would have gone home relieved by the fact that another below par performance had delivered 3 points. Much work is needed before any consistent run can be put in place, but confidence should be higher after this win. There are undoubtedly good footballers in the squad, but they must be played to their strengths, and there has to better understanding between the players. Lawrence, for all the hype about his height and aerial prowess, is actually a talented footballer on the ball and has good distribution and control. He can turn a man quickly, something I would not have expected to see. All four signings have good potential and the future can be a lot brighter than it may seem at the moment. Today’s result should not camouflage a below par performance.
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