Leyton Orient 1 v 1 Swansea City

The Swans extended their unbeaten run to ten matches with a late leveller and it was no more than they deserved. The visitors dominated the first half despite playing against the gale-force wind, but Orient grabbed the lead through a controversial penalty. Giant striker Julian Alsop ensured justice was done and Swansea boss John Hollins declared that he would have settled for a point before the game.
GOALS
1-0 Leyton Orient 58 mins Smith fired home his spot-kick right-footed straight down the middle, with 'keeper Roger Freestone diving to his right, after Griffiths was fouled by Bound

1-1 Swansea 84 mins Alsop headed home from close range following Appleby's incisive free-kick

Report by Peter & Bethan Charles

This was an impressive affair - mostly for the terrific Swans support which turned up today, with several hundred of us singing away non-stop, including Siberian Nick (and his girlfriend), a horn player and, curiously, a harmonica player, which had us all dancing (even Hollins did a little jig!), and 3 - 4 thousand Orient supporters looking rather bemused.

A real festive awayday - can't beat them. We opened up with jingle bells, softened them up a bit more with White Christmas (Bluebirds dying etc) and then finished them off with "Can't help falling in love" (purple jacketed security guards joining in at this point) and "the March from Aida". Barely a snort from the home end, but full marks to them on the irony front for singing back at us - "You're not singing any more". Oh, but we were!!!

On the field it was more muted. We played against the wind in the first half and mastered the conditions surprisingly well. We played our approach work to feet, worked the width of the pitch and then looked for Julian for the flicks and nods down. It worked a treat - we played good flowing football and dominated the early stages. Appleby and Coates looked good on both flanks and Steve Jones was over-lapping well. Unfortunately, we failed to turn this into actual chances. We didn't test the keeper and the quality of our crosses was often very poor. Our best chance fell to Alsop who contrived to head into the ground and over from six yards.

Orient looked threatening occasionally but really the first half belonged to us. With the wind behind us in the second half, real cause for optimism, but it was Orient who started better, playing in several deep crosses and forcing a smart save from Roger. Their goal, however, was dubious to say the least. There appeared to be little serious contact with an Orient attacker who was chasing toward the by-line, but he went to ground and a penalty was given and scored. Still, we got away with one last week!

We were rattled by this - even the singing became muted and one or two Orient fans woke up. It looked like the day was gone - but we responded well. Jules kept winning everything in the air, and was awarded several free kicks just our side the box. Bound hit two of these into the wall and Howard clipped one just over. Appleby also had a couple of excellent long range efforts.

Then came a very positive tactical move from JH. It was obvious he would take Coates off (he had faded badly) and replace him with Price. It was also obvious that he would then switch Appleby to the left - he did both of these. But rather than predictably replacing Watkin with Bird, he removed Mike Howard, brought Bird on, and changed us to an "all or nothing" 3 - 4 - 3 formation. Smith, Bound and Jones had to work twice as hard to keep the defence together, but at least we had increased our chances of equalising - we were immediately rewarded with a clear cut chance when Bird peeled away from the confused defence and forced a smart save from the keeper. A couple of minutes later, Jules won yet another free kick, Thomas (I think) swung in a Gascoigne-like cross, perfectly onto the head of the unmarked Jules who nodded home, ran the length of the pitch to wave his fists at us in delight, and even did a sneaky "hands behind the ears" gesture to the silent O's on the way past them...Jules MUST be Welsh really!!!

Roger had time to keep us in it with an excellent diving save just before the end, and Bird missed what seemed to be a very good chance at the other end almost on the final whistle. But the point was won - and this was a damn good point to win. We had deserved to win, but having fallen behind, we didn't panic, we didn't cave in and we battled back - that is a sign of a good side and a well motivated side.

We all went home well happy. And to round it off, we drive past a couple of Posh cars on the way back up the M11 and made sure we gave them some stick.

Christmas crackers:
Alsop - won everything and didn't stop running
Thomas - transformed from last week. Superb battling.
Appleby - looked a class act at times
Smith and Bound - held the defence together.
Roger for an excellent last minute save to keep us in it and some great work on high crosses.
JH and AC - for rescuing a point with a bold tactical switch.
Stuart Roberts - he didn't play but he was very sensible about it and he's a good lad!!! And all of the rest of them!

Christmas Puddings:
None of them - they did us proud today!!

Anyway - see you in Swansea for the Barnet game and then for the BIG ONE!!

Come on you Swans -

Peter and Bethan
(Peterborough Swans)

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