Swans v Preston | Vital Football

Swans v Preston

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Swansea v Preston, 22 Jan, 15:00
This Saturday sees the return of fans to the Swansea.com Stadium for the first time since that ignominious 1-4 defeat to Forest on Dec 11.
Preston are the visitors, and they are unbeaten in the 4 games since Ryan Lowe took over as manager over six weeks ago. Their first team coach will be familiar, it’s Mike Marsh, who was Steve Coopers assistant here at Swansea until recently. Another well known face will be winger Scott Sinclair who left us in 2012 for Man City.
Their away form this season include wins at Bournemouth and Middlesborough, and their last away game on 3rd Jan was a 1-2 win at Stoke.
Swans will be looking to build on their second half performance at Huddersfield last week where they gained a creditable draw against the high flying Terriers.
 
FT: Swans 1 - Preston 0
He’s got some shot on him that Ryan Manning for the goal, and he almost did it again but the goalkeeper managing the save. After a dour first half the second was much better , Piroe should have made the game safe when one on one with the goalkeeper. Another poor referee today with some bizarre decisions. Cyrus Christie looked a quality player, Flynn Downes excelled and Ben Cabango looked solid.
There was a sigh of relief at the final whistle after we had dropped deep and let Preston come at us in the final few minutes.
RM was a happy man and went over to celebrate and fist pump with the Jack Army.
First league defeat in five games for Preston under new manager Ryan Lowe.
First win in six and a clean sheet for the Swans. We needed it with two tough away games coming up this week.

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/report-swansea-city-1-preston-north-end-0
 
We had already faced a Ryan Lowe managed team this season when we played against his previous club Plymouth in the EFL Cup last August. Morgan Whittaker scored a hat trick that day in a 4-1 home win.
RM said "Very similar to his Plymouth side, they (Preston) like to dominate the ball and press really hard. It’ll be a difficult game. They've been in a really good run of form since he’s gone in. They’re physical, aggressive and he’s turned them into a team he wants them to be."
And so it turned out, with them playing five across the back, close marking, and hard to break down it was a tough match, with a wonder strike separating the sides.
 
Another slow start from us, an area that we need to improve.

Fortunately, Preston were very average and didn't pose much of a threat so we could attack the 2nd half with a bit more intensity and at 0-0.

It took a wonder-strike from 30 yards to win the game which says it all.

We don't create enough for our main striker up top, if he got chances made for him he'd score a load. He's shown how clinical he can be when given chances inside the box and I feel we don't play to his strengths.

But anyway, it's such a crucial 3 points after failing to win in the last 5. We made progress in the 2nd half at Huddersfield and while we didn't impress half as much yesterday, we got 2 extra points.
 
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