Swansea v Birmingham

K

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Swansea v Birmingham Sat 17 Jan 17:30

The odd time change is for live coverage by Sky Sports.

The first of two home league games in four days and its the newly promoted Blues of Birmingham and another clash of USA owned clubs with American billionaire financier Tom Wagner in control. I wonder if we’ll have the same fanfare that preceded the Wrexham game.

The reverse fixture was a 1-0 defeat and another late goal our downfall, a 94th minute header by Dykes. Our weakness to crosses/long throw-ins into the box exposed and continues to be as the season goes on. It should have been a draw though, Vipotnik was denied a first-half goal for offside, replays showed he was clearly onside.

Birmingham splashed the cash last summer, spending over £21m on 17 new players, top signings being Emil Hansson, Ayumu Yokoyama, Alex Cochrane and Lyndon Dykes.

They beat Cambridge Utd 2-3 last Sunday to advance to the FA Cup Fourth Round where they’ve been drawn against Leeds Utd.

Last away match on 1 Jan they lost 3-0 at Watford to a Tom Ince hat-trick

Last home match on 4 Jan they beat leaders Coventry 3-2, ending a 7 game winless run

They’ve won 2 and drawn 2 of their 13 away matches, last away win was 21 Oct at Preston 0-1.

Swans will need to get back on track after the 2-1 Millwall away defeat. It was yet another late winner, 92nd minute, their giant centre-back Taylor rising above the static Stamenic to head home from a cross to the far post. After Vigouroux’s heroics we deserved a draw.

We missed Vigouroux badly in Sunday’s home Cup defeat where his replacement Fisher was exposed.
 
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Swans:
Lawrence Vigouroux, Ethan Galbraith, Ben Cabango (c), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon, Jay Fulton, Goncalo Franco, Melker Widell, Ronald, Jisung Eom, Zan Vipotnik

Subs:
Andy Fisher, Josh Key, Marko Stamenic, Malick Yalcouye, Liam Cullen, Bobby Wales, Joel Ward, Zeidane Inoussa, Ollie Cooper

Birmingham:
James Beadle, Christoph Klarer (c), Phil Neumann, Tommy Doyle, Paik Seung-Ho, Kyogo Furuhasshi, Patrick Roberts, Tomoki Iwata, Lewis Koumas, Kai Wagner, Marvin Ducksch

Subs:
Ryan Allsop, Scott Wright, Willum Willumsson, Alfons Sampsted, Kanya Fujimoto, Jay Stansfield, Menzi Mazwi, Dan Isichei, William Burrell
 
Swansea 1 (Vipotnik 21’) - Birmingham 1 (Roberts 72’)

Yet again we flattered to deceive with late goals conceded, a habit all season. Some lovely football, an early goal, a half-time lead, but we couldn’t build on it. Three times we hit the bar, a clear penalty shout turned down by a poor and inconsistent referee and what do you know Birmingham equalised.

The game changed when Widell and Vipotnik went off for Yalcouye and Cullen on 68’ minutes, four minutes later we conceded. Further weakening of the team occurred with Eom replaced by Inoussa on 77’ and Franco going off for Ward on 83’ so Galbraith could move to midfield.

We went from ”should have scored more” for a comfortable win our play deserved to almost losing it at the end. The game could have been wrapped up before they equalised, we had 19 shots, four on target but only one goal, so frustrating.

Stand out players Franco, Galbraith and Widell.
 
keith margam said:
Swansea 1 (Vipotnik 21’) - Birmingham 1 (Roberts 72’)

Yet again we flattered to deceive with late goals conceded, a habit all season. Some lovely football, an early goal, a half-time lead, but we couldn’t build on it. Three times we hit the bar, a clear penalty shout turned down by a poor and inconsistent referee and what do you know Birmingham equalised.

The game changed when Widell and Vipotnik went off for Yalcouye and Cullen on 68’ minutes, four minutes later we conceded. Further weakening of the team occurred with Eom replaced by Inoussa on 77’ and Franco going off for Ward on 83’ so Galbraith could move to midfield.

We went from ”should have scored more” for a comfortable win our play deserved to almost losing it at the end. The game could have been wrapped up before they equalised, we had 19 shots, four on target but only one goal, so frustrating.

Stand out players Franco, Galbraith and Widell.
Click to expand...
Got to find that next step now. Matos has improved us massively from Sheehan, now it's a case of finding out how to eliminate our obvious weakness - falling off after an hour and inviting teams back in.
 
So Fulton gets a smack in the face blocking a shot for the second time.
Ref made the trainer come on, Fulton already up off the floor, trainer did not treat him and ref says Fulton has to leave the field. Ref keeps him off the pitch over the 30 seconds and with the Swans down to ten men, Birmingham equalise.
 
keith margam said:
So Fulton gets a smack in the face blocking a shot for the second time.
Ref made the trainer come on, Fulton already up off the floor, trainer did not treat him and ref says Fulton has to leave the field. Ref keeps him off the pitch over the 30 seconds and with the Swans down to ten men, Birmingham equalise.
Click to expand...
It's a stupid rule, what does staying off the pitch do?
 
Probably our best but also most frustrating performance of the season yesterday. Like the West Brom cup game, we’re creating a lot more clear cut chances but it doesn’t feel like we have what it takes to finish them. Definitely need to bring in some more quality for the forward areas.

Widell will be such a stand out in this league when he starts to get his end product going. His work-rate is top.

Feels like we’re on the right track but we just need a few profiles that we’re missing to really take advantage of this playing style. Let’s hope we can get some players in!
 
keith margam said:
Swansea v Birmingham Sat 17 Jan 17:30

The odd time change is for live coverage by Sky Sports.

The first of two home league games in four days and its the newly promoted Blues of Birmingham and another clash of USA owned clubs with American billionaire financier Tom Wagner in control. I wonder if we’ll have the same fanfare that preceded the Wrexham game.

The reverse fixture was a 1-0 defeat and another late goal our downfall, a 94th minute header by Dykes. Our weakness to crosses/long throw-ins into the box exposed and continues to be as the season goes on. It should have been a draw though, Vipotnik was denied a first-half goal for offside, replays showed he was clearly onside.

Birmingham splashed the cash last summer, spending over £21m on 17 new players, top signings being Emil Hansson, Ayumu Yokoyama, Alex Cochrane and Lyndon Dykes.

They beat Cambridge Utd 2-3 last Sunday to advance to the FA Cup Fourth Round where they’ve been drawn against Leeds Utd.

Last away match on 1 Jan they lost 3-0 at Watford to a Tom Ince hat-trick

Last home match on 4 Jan they beat leaders Coventry 3-2, ending a 7 game winless run

They’ve won 2 and drawn 2 of their 13 away matches, last away win was 21 Oct at Preston 0-1.

Swans will need to get back on track after the 2-1 Millwall away defeat. It was yet another late winner, 92nd minute, their giant centre-back Taylor rising above the static Stamenic to head home from a cross to the far post. After Vigouroux’s heroics we deserved a draw.

We missed Vigouroux badly in Sunday’s home Cup defeat where his replacement Fisher was exposed.
Click to expand...
Brum are still splashing the cash brought in another guy yesterday and close to another soon
 
Brighton winger Ibrahim Osman has joined Birmingham on loan until the end of the season. It’s their third signing of the January transfer window, after the arrivals of German left-back Kai Wagner from Philadelphia Union for £2m and Colombian midfielder Jhon Solis from Gerona for a €500k loan fee.
 
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