Sheff Wed v Swans | Vital Football

Sheff Wed v Swans

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Our opponents next Saturday, before the two week International break, are Sheffield Wednesday.

Blackburn ended six games without a win with two late goals against Gary Monk’s Sheffield Wednesday last Saturday.
Blackburn 2 (Adarabioyo 88’, Buckley 91’) - Sheff Wed 1 (Murphy 83’)

On 6th Sept this year Gary Monk replaced Steve Bruce (who had resigned a few months earlier to take over at Newcastle) as Sheffield Wednesday’s Manager.
His record so far:
PL10 W4 D3 L3 with a 40% win ratio

Form guide:
Sheff Wed last 6 home matches:
W3 D2 L1 F5 A3 Pts11
Swans last 6 away matches:
W4 D2 L0 F9 A4 Pts14
 
Gary Monk’s team boast the second best defence in the Championship behind Leeds, conceding 12 goals this season compared to Leeds 8 goals.
Monk said “The defensive organisation on everything is the foundation, especially in this league, and then you work from there.
I didn't have the luxury of pre-season but what we have been able to do in a short space of time is give them that foundation of the defensive organisation that we need.
When you come in like I have done, I have learned from experience that the key is to put the team in a position where they can be really competitive in games.
It is not going to be the finished article and it is not what we eventually want to be overall but that foundation puts you in a position where you can compete in games straight away."
During Monk’s short tenure they have an impressive 4 clean sheets in 10 matches, but are not a high scoring team having only scored 19 times from the last 15 matches. Steven Fletcher is their leading marksman with 5 goals.
A disappointing run of just one victory from four matches since the last international break has derailed their progress.
Yet they have performed well at Hillsborough this season having picked up maximum points from four of their seven home fixtures, conceding only three goals. QPR the only side to have beaten them at home since last April.
 
Sheffield Wednesday 2 - Swansea City 2
Forestieri 81’, Fox 91’ - Ayew 32’, Wilmot 94’
Attendance: 23,073 (700 Jacks)

Team: Woodman, Naughton, Wilmot, Hoorn, Bidwell, Grimes, Dyer (Roberts 77’), Celina (Fulton 83’), Routledge (Surridge 83’), Ayew
Subs: Nordfelt, Fulton, Baston, Peterson, Surridge, Roberts, Cabango

Possession: 46% - 54%
Shots: 20 - 13
On Target: 7 - 6
Corners: 7 - 4
Fouls: 10 - 9
Cards: 1Y- 0
Ref: David Webb 2/10
 
Steve Cooper praised Swansea City for again showing their never-say-die spirit as another late goal saw them snatch a point at Sheffield Wednesday.

Having led 1-0 thanks to Andre Ayew’s first-half strike at Hillsborough, a chaotic final 10 minutes looked set to leave Cooper’s men empty-handed as Fernando Forestieri and Morgan Fox netted for the Owls.

But Ben Wilmot popped up to find the net from a Matt Grimes corner and ensure the Swans unbeaten away record remains intact.

And Cooper was delighted with the spirit his players had shown once again, having claimed victory at Wigan seven days earlier with a goal in stoppage time.

“We’ve scored late goals and we've conceded a few as well. We've conceded one late on today. I think we’ve probably scored four and conceded four.

They probably even themselves up, but it is showing that we will not give up.

The mentality of the team is something we want to be really proud of.

We do want to play with the ball and play in a creative way, but we also want to be really tough to play against and part of being difficult to play against is never giving up. We showed that today.”
 
A cloudy, cold(4c), and damp day in Sheffield.
An exciting match for the neutrals, especially at the end. Loads of missed chances and both sides rode their luck in a very open match.
Yet another match with late goals as both sides tired. It just goes to show how crucial subs are at this time and it was inevitable that sub Reach’s shot, parried by Woodman, was slotted home by sub Foristieri to equalise for the Owls with 8 mins to go.
Either side could have won it, but for me it was so disappointing that we couldn’t hold on to the lead and get the away win, having led for so long in the match.
Still, in retrospect I would have taken the draw before hand, and a draw at a tough place to get anything was commendable. Despite the ref as well, who I thought was very poor. He allowed Wednesday players to bully us off the ball at times, he missed the handball penalty shout for us, and he should have sent off Lee, who was already on a yellow, for grappling Celina.
 
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Gary Monk:
“Frustrated that we didn't come away with the three points but the effort and commitment from these lads is fantastic.
We said after our last game when those moments come when it can get emotional you need to focus, especially from two set pieces in our last two games.
The effort, fight and spirit is clearly there to comeback from that and get ourselves into the lead but it's frustrating and disappointing from the last two games that when the critical moments came we didn't do our job."

Steve Cooper:
“It is mixed emotions really I think that having gone 2-1 down late on you think it will be a bad day that we didn't deserve, so that part of it, the resilience to get the equaliser, that's something we are really pleased about.
It was the least we deserved, a point. We had a tough start to the game but we managed that and then we completely controlled the game.
If we can come to a place like this and play like we did, that bodes well, that's what I want.
The late goal comes down to conditioning and not giving up. We want to dominate every game and at times I thought we did that really well."
 
Ben Wilmot was elated after his second crucial goal in the space of three games rescued a point for Swansea City at Sheffield Wednesday.
The 20-year-old centre-back had opened his senior account by netting the winner in the South Wales derby on his first league start for the Swans.
And the on-loan Watford defender struck again at Hillsborough, arriving perfectly to guide a Matt Grimes corner into the net in stoppage time.
That made it 2-2 and kept Swansea’s unbeaten away record intact.
And, while disappointed Steve Cooper’s side had not managed to take all three points having held the lead for much of the contest, he was delighted to make sure they left South Yorkshire with a positive result:
“I’m very pleased to help us get the point. Personally, I’m buzzing.
I’m happy to have scored but a little bit disappointed at the same time.
I had a chance earlier on at 1-0 and, had it gone in, I think we would have won the game.
On the whole, we’ve come away a tad disappointed. We feel that we should have won the game and killed it off a bit earlier.
But we’re pleased that we can come to big places like this, play the way we did and get a result.”
 
The Sheffield Star are claiming that our first goal was an own goal hooked into the net by Morgan Fox. They’re wrong, I’ve watched the replay several times and you can clearly see Ayew’s distinctive yellow and blue striped stocking clad leg as he boots the ball in.
 
Matt Grimes believes Swansea City’s dramatic draw with Sheffield Wednesday shows Steve Cooper’s side are heading in the right direction.

A pulsating finish at Hillsborough saw Andre Ayew’s opener cancelled out by sub Fernando Forestieri late on before Morgan Fox struck in added time to give the Owls the lead.

But Ben Wilmot’s equaliser in the 94th minute meant the Swans had something to show for their efforts in Yorkshire.

It also maintains their unbeaten away record – the only team in the EFL to do so – going into the final international break of the year with the Swans sat in fourth place.

“It was a crazy last five minutes, to go 2-1 down and bring it back to 2-2 with pretty much the last kick of the game is a testament to the character of the lads. To keep the unbeaten away run going is a huge positive too.
It was a decent draw and probably a fair result in the end. They had some chances, I don’t know how many times the woodwork got hit during the game, but coming away to a tough place like this, even though we’re disappointed not to win, is another point in the right direction.
It was hugely disappointing to concede so late on and they celebrated like they’d won the game. However, anything can happen in football and we still had two or three minutes left.
We know that we have players on the pitch that can win us the game, so we just tried to get the ball forward as quickly as possible and see if we could work something out. Thankfully, we got the corner and scored from it.”
 
6-1 conquerors of the Swans, QPR are home to Gary Monk’s Sheffield Wednesday in the next round of the FA Cup.
 
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