Swans v Wigan | Vital Football

Swans v Wigan

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Next up in the Xmas Holiday log jam of matches is a home match against lowly Wigan this coming Saturday.
They are struggling as badly as we are, so it’s hopefully a chance to get some much needed points on the board.
Form Guide last 6 matches:
Wigan - W1 D1 L4 F4 A9 Pts4
Swans - W2 D0 L4 F9 A11 Pts6
 
Wigan lost 2-0 at WBA yesterday, and drop down to 19th in the table after 4 consecutive defeats, only 4 points off the drop zone. They have won just once in 11 games and taken 1 point from their last 10 away matches.
 
Routledge is hoping to return against Wigan after a minor calf injury.

McBurnie on the defeat against Villa:
“We are going to dust ourselves down and go again on Saturday. We will show everyone that we are much better than we showed against Aston Villa.
One thing about this run of games is that we can put things right straightaway,
We have complete confidence in ourselves as a team and in the manager. There's no concern. We have had two games we probably should have won and we have to turn the performances into results”

Potter on the Bony penalty miss against Villa:
“It's one of those situations. Oli has always been the penalty-taker because he has been there on the pitch. But you would expect someone of Wilf's experience, his record with penalties and the type of character he is, to take the responsibility.
Sometimes players have to solve that - no problem. Of course it's a good chance to score but it's part of football. It happens."
 
1992 was the Queen's 'annus horribilis' – a year of scandal, tragedy and turmoil for the royal family that stretched the monarchy's credibility to near breaking point.

How apt a phrase for our club in 2018. It was the the Swans “annus horribilis” - a year that started on a high note where we beat the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and West Ham, and ended up being relegated, one win short of safety.
We sacked the manager, then got rid of 16 PL players in a fire sale for half their worth, and promoted our Academy players to replace them, complimented by a few cheap replacements.
We haven’t seen our owners this season, they are in hiding together with the Chairman, they are afraid to face the fans after overseeing relegation.
The Supporters Trust, part owners of the club, are still debating whether to sue the majority owners, who refuse to talk to them, and the sell outs who sold the club behind our back.
And so here we are today, the last match of the year, of our “annus horribilis”, hoping for a win at home to a lowly Wigan side recently promoted from League 1.
We have lost 7 of the last 12 matches, are in free fall and sleepwalking to another relegation.
The owners, blasé as usual, say there are more cuts to come, and that getting rid of the last few players worth anything is the priority in the January transfer window.
Happy New Year!
 
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Potter made six changes to the team for our last match, and he has made many wholesale changes previously, enough to be named “The Tinkerman” by many.
Can we expect more of the same today?
I understand him rotating the squad during this intense period of matches over the holidays, but too many changes is surely affecting the players, who do not know who’s playing alongside them from one match to the next, or even if they will play themselves.
Carroll is still out injured, Ollson is out for the season, Routledge is doubtful, otherwise we have a full compliment of players to choose from.
 
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It’s not all doom and gloom though!
We have a good chance at home to Wigan today, and next Tuesday away against Reading, to reverse the losing trend and get a couple of wins against two struggling sides.
Six points from those two matches and things will look much better.
A few quality signings in the January sales and things will look better still!
 
A pathetic first half performance saw lowly Wigan, on the back of 4 successive defeats, go into a 0-2 lead and it could have been 3 or 4 as we were a shambles in a 3-5-2 formation.
Give credit to Wigan though as they played well, pressed high and bullied us off the ball.
It was probably the worst football I’ve seen from a Swans team in many a year.
A 10th minute penalty was awarded when wingback Routledge brushed Naismith in the area, Garner put away the spotkick. He scored scored again with a header, this time from a corner in the 34th minute,
The team went off a half time to boos from the fans and shouts of “sort it out Potter”
Potter reverted to a 4-4-2 after the break and we looked a different team.
Montero replaced Harries and Naughton replaced Baker-Richardson on 45’.
We pulled the two goals deficit back, Burn scored an own goal on 59’, deflecting Grimes corner into his own net, and VdH equalised on 81’, but we just could not get the winner.
Bony replaced Fulton on 76’ but he was static and made little difference.
Please stop the experimenting Mr Potter and pick your best team.
 
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Swans - Wigan
Possession: 63% - 37%
Shots: 13 - 16
Shots on target: 6 - 5
Corners: 7 - 5
Fouls: 16 - 18
 
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Chairman Jenkins in the match programme yesterday:

"There was a big turnaround in the summer as major changes were the priority in terms of the staff and squad. Those changes were made in order to provide us with a chance to quickly turn our fortunes around and mount a challenge for a promotion push to get back to the Premier League at our first attempt."

That is an unbelievable statement!
So we sold all our best players for half their value, promoted inexperienced young players from the Academy to the first team, and brought in some cheap poor quality players to make up squad numbers.
All this would result in us getting back to the PL at the first attempt?!!!
Look where we are in the table Mr Jenkins. We’re in 13th position and falling. Yesterday we couldn’t beat lowly Wigan who’d had 1 draw and 9 defeats in the previous 10 away games.
 
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