Match report

Swansea City 3 v 2 Mansfield Town

Report by Jeremy Kivell

This could easily have been one of those "why did I bother" games. Mansfield hadn't conceded a goal in their previous six matches, including clean sheets aginst Fulham and Carlisle, and we all know about Swansea's recent form. As it turned out, the game rivalled the ones at Northampton and at the Vetch against Leyton Orient for entertainment value. So much for my forecasting ability.

A win for Mansfield would have kept them in with an outside chance of making the playoffs. They started the better and should have scored in the first couple of minutes, when some inept Swansea defending lead to a goalmouth scramble. The game settled down after that, but the visitors continued to look more likely to score. Swansea, with Molby being denied any space, rarely put together any constructive football, resorting mostly to the long ball over the top.

After 20 minutes, to nobody's surprise, Mansfield took the lead. Their winger Clarke made a run down the left and shot past Freestone only to see his effort cannon off the inside of the near post and across the goal where Ford was waiting to put the loose ball into the net.

Two minutes later, something doubly unexpected happened. Mansfield conceded a goal, and it was Dai Thomas who scored it. To be fair, it was one of Psycho's better games. Apart from the goal, a terrific looping header back across the static keeper from a Coates left-wing cross, he worked hard and did a lot of running throughout the game. Hopefully, he'll get some confidence back after this showing. In fact, he could have had a second later in the half, but was denied by an excellent save after running on to Torpey's header.

Two minutes after the break, Mansfield took the lead again. A corner from the right was headed into the net by the badly marked centre back. The word "soft" springs to mind. Actually, a few other four letter words sprang to mind at the time, but I won't repeat them here.

The game seemed to be drifting away from us at that point. We were creating very little, and Mansfield looked quite secore at the back. Then Molby gambled by replacing the alarmingly blond Thomas Willer with Carl Heggs.

Only a few minutes after coming on, Heggs had got the equaliser. Patient play between Ampadu, who was filling in at left back, and Edwards, resulted in a deep ball into the area which was flicked on by Torpey into the path of the substitute, who slipped it under the keeper into the net.

Apparently, it was his first of the season, and we didn't have to wait too long for his second. The ball was crossed deep from the right by Steve Jones, to the far post where Heggs hit it with a volley which was either going to almost burst the net, or hit the first "F" in the Fram Filters advert on the East Stand. Fortunately, he kept it down, giving the keeper no chance.

The was one major scare before the end, but Freestone saved well to ensure the three points.

We're still not playing as well as we have this season. At times we defended like Liverpool. I know that's normally a compliment, but considering the events at Anfield earlier in the day, it's suddenly a far from flattering analogy. I was prepared to give Willer the benefit of the doubt on the strength of the previous two games I've seen him play. But today, although looking OK technically, some of his positional play was awful. Fortunately, Keith Walker should be back by next weekend, so we should be able to tighten thngs up a bit. Having said that, it was particularly satisfying to see some determination and character from the side. Substitution masterstroke aside, these were undoubtedly the qualities which won us these three points. More of the same will be vital in the weeks to come.

So we're almost there. One more point should make it absolutely certain. And who knows, we may have a nearly forgotten striker coming into form at just the right time. Is anyone taking bets on Carl Heggs scoring the winner at Wembley on May 24th?