Mansfield Town 1 v 0 Swansea City

Didn't deserve to lose but inept finishing meant that we didn't deserve a point either. Being objective (as opposed to the usual objectionable) I thought there was a lot to be positive about from the Swans display. We played to feet and kept a good shape - our downfall was that Bound, and to a lesser extent Smith, couldn't cope with the pace and quickness of feet (passing) of the Mansfield strikers Peacock and Christie. In fact the goal came from Bound clumsily getting the ball stuck between his legs when attempting to clear. After that the ball ran kindly for the Stags and a vicious groundshot was palmed away by the excellent Freestone only for it to be tapped into the empty net.

Before this we had FOUR CLEAR CUT CHANCES ON GOAL when Watkin 
fuffed 2 , Alsop and Thomas 1 each. Oh yes, and Appleby headed a ball
through that put Thomas clear on their keeper but the ref blew and awarded
us  afree kick instead because Appleby had been fouled heading it through!

Alsop was replaced at half-time (I think he'd been watching Brazil videos
in the hotel before the game as he tried to place/curl every chance he
had).

Roberts replaced Howard around 65 mins and Coates replaced Thomas 78 ish.

My player ratings:
Freestone 8 - made two excellent saves in the 2nd half
Price 7 - saw plenty of the ball
Howard 6 - again cut in and passed to Cusack whenever he reached the
halfway line. 
Bound 5.5 - uncomfortable, unusually. 
Smith 6.5 one
excellent 30 yard chase and tackle on the penalty spot 
Cusack - 6.5 steady Eddie 
Jenkins - 6.5 satisfactory game 
Thomas - 6.5 got into some good advanced positions 
Appleby - 6 closely marked by 2 whenever he had the ball - looked frustrated. 
Alsop 5 - poor 
Watkin 5 - totally lacking confidence in front of goals 
+++++++++++ 
Bird 6 - tried hard made one or two openings 
Roberts 6 - no fairytale today 
Coates 6 - looks happier when defending these days.

CORSIT count =0

Epilogue:
I'm convinced that the way forward for the Swans is to play Bird as an out
and out striker and pick players around him who are going to provide
chances by breaking from midfield.

Something like ..
		Freestone
	Price Bound Smith Coates
Roberts Thomas Cusack Jenkins Appleby
		    Bird

We might just get some goals ...