|
| Exeter City 4 Swansea City 0 |
Exeter 4 Swansea City 0
FORMER CARDIFF City striker Steve Flack scored twice to send Swaasea crashing to their heaviest defeat of the season and their first league failure in nine games.
Swansea welcomed back Martin Thomas and skipper Nick Cusack in midfield after resting the pair for the midweek Auto Windscreens Shield defeat against Gillingham.
With winger Stuart Roberts also restored to the starting line-up with Jason Smith, back on familiar West Country ground, Swansea had much more of a familiar look after Tuesday's 1-0 reverse. Mark Clode continued at left-back in the absence of the suspended Michael Howard, missing his first league game of the season.
Exeter also rang the changes after a midweek Shield success against Southend. Jason Rees and Jimmy Gardner returned while Billy Clark took over in defence from the injured Jon Gittens. Exeter included Swansea-born midfielder Chris Holloway who scored his first senior goal for the club in last week's 3-1 win at Carlisle.
Swansea found themselves under pressure from the start and when Fry turned sharply on the edge of the area and fired straight at Freestone. It underlined Exeter's intention to make their presence felt early on As the Devon side kept up the tempo Swansea looked uncertain at the back, frequently failing to clear their lines before falling behind on seven minutes.
Fry took the corner and CURRAN stole in ahead of Alsop just inside the box and fired a right-foot shot into the roof of the net. It already looked like another of those lethargic Swansea starts although Coates tried to change the pattern quickly with several darting runs at the Exeter defence. After Alsop had headed a Bound free-kick straight into the hands of Bayes, Thomas burst down the middle but sliced his shot so wide that it went for a throw-in. Swansea kept up the pressure and, when Coates fed Roberts, the winger drove his shot straight across the goalmouth where a deflection offered Swansea a corner opportunity.
Despite the respite for the Swansea defence, Exeter were soon back on the offensive and it needed a superb one-handed save from Freestone to prevent the home side going further ahead. Quailey's shot took a deflection off Bound and seemed to be looping over the advancing Swansea keeper before Freestone's outstretched arm turned the striker's shot around the post.
Swansea weathered the latest storm and built another attack with Coates again prominent before Roberts drove over from the edge of the area. it was not long however, before hesitant Swansea were under further pressure and it needed a goal-line clearance from Watkin to prevent Flacks effort going over the line.
It was starting to look one-way traffic to the Swansea goal. The quick-thinking Rees drove a free-kick straight at Freestone while Swansea were lining up the wall and almost immediately Quailey cut in from the right and forced Freestone to make another critical save before Exeter went 2-0 up on 27 minutes.
Bound's clearance fell straight to FLACK 20 yards out and the former Cardiff striker drove a low shot into the bottom corner of the net beyond the diving Freestone to register his fourth goal in five games. Five minutes later all the action was in the press box after a Bound clearance shattered a window and had everybody scurrying for cover.
With a mountain to climb Swansea continued to make little impression on the Exeter defence and Bayes had yet to be tested. Just before the interval Swansea's hard-pressed defence was on the retreat again with a desperate clearance from Smith preventing Quailey and Curran forcing a shot on target.
Half-time: Exeter City 2, Swansea City 0
Swansea went straight on to the offensive when the match resumed but, after Coates, Roberts and Watkin had released Jones Exeter had little trouble in clearing the danger. Next Bayes punched clear as Swansea threatened again after Exeter had broken up field and won two successive corners.
Swansea clearly had a huge task ahead of them as their eight-match unbeaten league run was under threat. Roberts tried to find a way through down the right hand touch line and was clearly annoyed when he lost possession to Gardner.
Swansea kept up the tempo and, when Jones attempted to release Roberts, Bayes was lucky to escape when he caught the through ball with one foot clearly outside the area. The linesman had a clear view of the incident, however, and signalled to the referee that the Exeter keeper had done nothing wrong.
For a moment Swansea were incensed but they soon applied their minds to the main task with Thomas again weaving his way through the middle before a superb tackle from Curran prevented the midfielder striking for goal.
Swansea had still to seriously test the Exeter keeper and the inevitable substitute arrived on tbe hour when Tony Bird replaced Watkin.
If Swansea harboured any hopes of getting back into the match they disappeared on 66 minutes when QUAILEY drove home fmm eight yards. Five minutes later Swansea pulled off Thomas and sent on Lee Jenkins but the match was already beyond Swansea's reach when the outstanding Flack delivered an inch-perfect header into the path of Quailey who forced Freestone into another brilliant save.
There was no way back for Swansea and nine minutes from the end FLACK turned inside Clode and drove a powerful angled shot into the far corner of Freestone's net to make it 4-0.
Worse was to follow for Swansea on 84 minutes when Alsop limped off with a knee injury to be replaced by Price.
EXETER: Bayes, Fry, Power, Holloway, Richardson, Clark, Quailey, Rees, Flack, Curran, Gardner. SUBS: R. Blake, Breslan, Waugh.
SWANSEA: Freestone, Jones, Clode, Cusack, Smith, Bound, Roberts, Thomas, Alsop, Watkin, Coates. SUBS: Bird, Jekins, Price.
Click here to go back to start page if not using frames