keith margam
Vital Football Legend
February started off so well with a 2-0 win over leaders Norwich.
Then came the 1-3 defeat to Man City in the FA Cup. From then on we’ve been out of sorts. We had the late postponement of the Sheff Wed away match, then the narrow 1-0 home win over Forest.
Next up was lowly Huddersfield and a shock 4-1 tanking, could have been more, and it’s still the only match Huddersfield have won this year, conceding 5 goals without reply in their next 2 games!
We recovered slightly with another closely fought 1-0 home win against struggling Coventry, then capped it off with another shock defeat 1-3 at home to Bristol City, after leading 1-0.
What’s gone wrong that we’ve suddenly started conceding goals after having the best defence in the league all season. Key defender Ryan Bennett has missed the last two games after going off injured half-time at Huddersfield, but we were already 1-2 down by then. Experienced defender Naughton went off injured against Coventry and missed the Bristol City match.
Besides the recent problems in defence, our front two Ayew and Lowe haven’t scored in open play since Ayew scored against Norwich the beginning of February and we’ve been relying on defenders and midfielders for goals. We may regret not bringing in a recognised striker in the January window. Norwich have Pukki (18 goals), Brentford have Toney (25 goals) and are the reason why they are first and second in the table.
Next up we travel to Stoke for a 20:15 kick off in front of the Sky Sports cameras. We won 2-0 at the Liberty in October, Fulton and Palmer (sub for Dhanda) with the goals. The team that day - Woodman, Naughton, Bennett, Guehi, Roberts, Manning, Dhanda, Fulton, Grimes, Ayew, Lowe in a 3-4-1-2 formation.
The bet365 Stadium, formerly the Britannia Stadium, has not been a happy hunting ground for the Swans, the last time we won there was in 2001, twenty years ago, in the old Division 2.
Ex-Swan Joe Allen is back from long term injury and always excels when he plays against us. Other Welsh Internationals who also play for Stoke are Sam Vokes and James Chester.
Then came the 1-3 defeat to Man City in the FA Cup. From then on we’ve been out of sorts. We had the late postponement of the Sheff Wed away match, then the narrow 1-0 home win over Forest.
Next up was lowly Huddersfield and a shock 4-1 tanking, could have been more, and it’s still the only match Huddersfield have won this year, conceding 5 goals without reply in their next 2 games!
We recovered slightly with another closely fought 1-0 home win against struggling Coventry, then capped it off with another shock defeat 1-3 at home to Bristol City, after leading 1-0.
What’s gone wrong that we’ve suddenly started conceding goals after having the best defence in the league all season. Key defender Ryan Bennett has missed the last two games after going off injured half-time at Huddersfield, but we were already 1-2 down by then. Experienced defender Naughton went off injured against Coventry and missed the Bristol City match.
Besides the recent problems in defence, our front two Ayew and Lowe haven’t scored in open play since Ayew scored against Norwich the beginning of February and we’ve been relying on defenders and midfielders for goals. We may regret not bringing in a recognised striker in the January window. Norwich have Pukki (18 goals), Brentford have Toney (25 goals) and are the reason why they are first and second in the table.
Next up we travel to Stoke for a 20:15 kick off in front of the Sky Sports cameras. We won 2-0 at the Liberty in October, Fulton and Palmer (sub for Dhanda) with the goals. The team that day - Woodman, Naughton, Bennett, Guehi, Roberts, Manning, Dhanda, Fulton, Grimes, Ayew, Lowe in a 3-4-1-2 formation.
The bet365 Stadium, formerly the Britannia Stadium, has not been a happy hunting ground for the Swans, the last time we won there was in 2001, twenty years ago, in the old Division 2.
Ex-Swan Joe Allen is back from long term injury and always excels when he plays against us. Other Welsh Internationals who also play for Stoke are Sam Vokes and James Chester.
