Match report

Video clips

• highlights showing all 3 goals (1.5Mb)

As torrential rain swept across a somewhat desolate looking Vetch at five to three, it was beginning to look as though today's game was more likely to be a mistake-riddled mud bath than game of great goals. In the event, it was both.

It was one of the brightest starts to a game that Swans fans have seen for some time. From our first attack a swinging Appleby cross from the left was met squarely by the head of Alsop, whose looping header just missed the angle of post and bar. Swans continued to press in the first ten minutes and with Appleby looking lively in a roving attacking role, and Alsop and Boyd seeking out possession eagerly, it looked as though this might be a promising Swans performance. Unfortunately, our early probings forced Colchester into a "men behind the ball" Philosophy, which they performed particularly well.

This then began to uncover some of the Swans familiar frailties. When asked to play through a massed and physical defence, the midfield of Cusack and O'Leary had neither the control nor the creativity to make any headway. A few half chances still came the Swans way in what was developing into a dire struggle. The best of these fell to Boyd - as the ball broke to him from an Alsop challenge, he was left with just the keeper to beat, but scuffed his shot badly, allowing an easy save to be made. Several chances also fell to Appleby, the first of which he completely fluffed by hitting an air shot from the edge of the area. From an inventive Keegan corner, he tried to steer a low shot past the keeper, but didn't make a sound connection; and he produced his best effort from an overhead kick which flashed narrowly wide.

However, Colchester began to look increasingly dangerous on the break, and came close to scoring early on when a neat interchange of passes resulted in Freestone making a point blank save with his legs. As half time neared, Colchester became the more likely side to score, and when Freestone spilled a vicious cross into the path of French striker Lua Lua (no, not a tellytubby), he steered his shot wide when scoring would have been easier. Despite their early efforts, the Swans were booed off at the interval.

It got worse in the first quarter of the second half. Colchester went for the game with a vengeance, and after a flurry of early attacking, took a deserved lead when the dangerous Tinkywinky, sorry, Lua Lua, struck a rising shot from 20 yards past the helpless freestone. At this point, the Swans had truly fallen apart and most of the swans crowd seemed to sense no way back. At this stage, Hollins seemed to have only one option - to remove the totally ineffective O'Leary and replace him with another striker; but he didn't take it! Instead he took off the increasingly ineffective Boyd, and the out of touch Keegan, and replaced them with Ryan Casey, in a wide left role, and Steve Watkin. Still, it was Colchester who nearly sewed the game when Freestone advanced out of his area, lost possession, and left (you guessed it) Lua Lua with a free run into an open goal - he was foiled only by a last ditch saving tackle from the excellent Smith.

With half an hour to go, however, the tide began to turn. Hollins was proved right as the substitutions made a notable difference, with Watkin far more impressive in a ball-holding link role than Boyd had been. Casey was a revelation, making several surging runs, looking strong on the ball and delivering several some excellent crosses, one of which presented Alsop with an clear header at an open goal, which he contrived to head wide. Further spurred on by the childish antics of Colchester's Duguid, who seemed more interested in baiting the crowd than performing on the pitch, the Swans continued to press forward. A good strike from Cusack was turned round the post, and a similar long range strike from Price was diverted on to the post.

As time slipped away it looked as though the late efforts would bring no reward, until a goalmouth melee from a corner resulted in Cusack sharply turning in a close range effort. This gave Colchester some problems, as they struggled to adapt to the increasing wave of Swansea pressure. One more chance was sure to come, but in the event, it came as a surprise to everyone present. A strong header on the right from Alsop was met on the run by Watkin, wide on the right of the penalty area; his crisp volley rocketed into the Colchester net leaving the keeper helpless, the Colchester side devastated, the 150 or so Colchester fans distraught, and the Swans fans jubilant. Even the large English flag displayed in the away end seemed to sag with dismay!

In the time honoured tradition of the mailing list, here are ratings out of 10:

Freestone - 7 Steady, but a couple of Grobbelaar moments.
Howard - 8 Solid in defence; rarely gave the ball away.
Price - 6 Always out of position at right back; gave the ball away too much, but created some panic when he roamed forward.
Smith - 9 As solid as ever, and made a game-saving tackle, along with many others.
Bound - 8 Just make "solid" his middle name!
Appleby - 8 Our most dangerous player in the first half and continued to threaten throughout; gave the ball away on occasions.
Keegan - 6 Sprightly, but made little impression. Promising though.
Cusack - 6 Tried to steady the ship, but couldn't steer it. Credit due for the goal.
O'Leary - 4 Physical presence, but no vision or passing ability. Just not a midfielder.
Alsop - 6 Put himself about a lot, and got a lot firm contact in the air - well directed flicks; worked well with Watkin. Would have got 7 marks, but my goodness - that miss!!!
Boyd - 5 Had a couple of good touches, but missed one clear opportunity and seemed generally fed up with the cold and the rain. Someone should really have told him!
Watkin - 8 Held the ball up tremendously, and always looked threatening. The volley was surely one of the best ever seen at the Vetch.
Casey - 9 Definitely our man of the match - turned the game with his probing wing play and promising runs - found his man with every cross. Can this be his coming of age?
Lacey - 6 Succeeded at least in getting in the way a bit, and made a few decent passes.
Our other man of the match - Colchester's Duguid, whose antics at 1 - 0 lifted the spirits of the home crowd and team.

Summary thoughts - Credit has to be given for the tremendous character which the side showed in getting back into the game, when it really looked as though it was beyond them. No doubt though that the substitutions turned the game - we really did not look like scoring before that. Indeed at times the performance was mediocre, bordering on hopeless, mainly as a result of an inability to grip the game in midfield. Still, a win is a win, particularly in difficult conditions. Oldham here we come, and there is some nervous fidgeting going on in the West Ham board room!

The rain from 1 pm was worse than that of last season when the Hull match was first off then on again - but to be fair the pitch for today's game was in much better condition than then.

What was bad today was the gusting wind from the Mumbles end which repeatedly saw their keeper kick out from hand and straight into Roger's arms throughout the first half.

First surprise was Holins' line-up; dropped from the squad were recent favourites Stuart Roberts, Jonathan Coates and Martin Thomas but he failed to grasp the nettle completely by picking Boyd who has done very little since joining us. If JH is his own man, we won't see Boyd starting against Northampton on Tuesday.

Swansea adapted well to the difficult conditions (the gusting wind was aided and abetted by torrential rain at times) and Alsop looked up for it. Unfortunately the referee was about as useful as a John Hollins on a Sky football panel - he was abysmal but not in a pro-active sense. He just played the game with the rule "anything goes".

As has been said already we matched them for most of the first half despite being against the heavy wind - but a strongish finish by them led to the fickle crowd booing off the players for the 3rd consecutive match.

Second half started poorly for us and it was no surprise that poor defending by Howard presented Lulu with his goal. As John Hollins will no doubt say next week - you can't cater for shots like that. And he's right - BUT JOHN, YOU CAN CATER FOR THE OPPORTUNITIES THAT WE PRESENT TO THE OPPOSITION TO ENABLE THEM TO HAVE THESE SHOTS - IT'S CALLED FOLLOWING THE BALL AFTER IT'S BEEN CLEARED ONCE.

How many times have I seen that this season? The ball comes into our area and we clear it - then we WATCH to see what happens next. If anyone at the club is reading this - for god's sake start dealing with this aspect on the training ground - it's not a difficult concept.

To be fair to the team we did finish strongly and JH was right to remove Boyd and Keegan to get some more effort and purpose into the game.

Casey was excellent and carved out the chance of the match (much easier than the goals) when he found Alsop at head height and unmarked at the far post.

Fortunately this didn't deter him and he continued to make excellent whipped crosses from the left by-line (something we haven't seen all season).

The Cusack goal was a scramble - we'll have to wait for the TV coverage to see what really happened but Watkin's volley was a beauty. Again a piece of daylight robbery by us but made all the sweeter by Duiguid's antics of holding up 1-0 with his fingers to the NB when caught offside.

Tactics? I'm not sure there were any again today with high balls the only consistent theme.

It will be interesting to see if Hollins drops Boyd for Tuesday. The result? We'll probaly get hammered and win 1-0 or we'll dominate and lose 1-0.

Soccernet.com report

Steve Watkin and skipper Nick Cusack were the Swansea heroes as John Hollins' men hit the Wembley Trail with a 2-1 win over Colchester at the Vetch Field.

The deadly duo struck inside the last nine minutes to turn the tie on its head after Lomana Lua Lua had put United ahead with a wonder goal before the hour.

On a saturated surface, Swansea had looked a slick outfit in the early exchanges, hitman Julian Alsop profiting from the debut making Michael Keegan's exciting wing play.

But highly rated Zairean Lua Lua was proving a headache for the Swans, and one minute before the break the African's sweet pirouette ended with a flashing drive over Freestone's bar.

Just seven minutes after the interval the U's went ahead in spectacular fashion. Jason Smith only half cleared and Lua Lua steadied before sending a blistering 25-yard rocket into the net.

Swansea battled back and the Vetch erupted seven minutes from time. Richard Appleby's corner sparked mayhem and Cusack pounced - stabbing home from four yards.

And Colchester's world caved in five seconds from the end of normal time, Watkin crashing home Appleby's curling cross from the right.