Things are shaping up well and generally there’s a confident mood among our fans. I don’t take much notice of all the news during transfer windows as most of it is just hot air but I was a bit disappointed when Broadhead went to Ipswich.
The recruitment team have done a good job in the last year or so and I reckon they’ll bring in a couple of sound players by the end of the month. The Championship is a very elastic league this season and a win today would put us back in the play-offs but a defeat could move us down four or five places. I think we’ll win again this afternoon. Swansea have only won once in their last ten games and their away form is poor, though they did beat us at their place. With Stewart in the side you’ve always got to fancy us to get a goal or two and also Evans will be back in the reckoning for this game. I’ll be listening to the match on SAFSEE and my prediction is a 3-1 win for us.
I got the team-news, from ALS of course, around 2:15 and there were five changes from the Shrewsbury starting line-up. Patterson, Gooch, Evans, Clarke and Stewart were in for Bass, Wright, Michut, Ba and Bennette, all of whom were on the bench in the company of Batth and Dajaku. I was more than happy with the selections. Rotherham beat Blackburn 4-0 in the early kick-off and that was all to the good for us.
I got SAFSEE on and the crowd sounded lively. We had the better of the opening minutes and were pressing them back well. A fairly tame shot by Gooch was held comfortably by Benda in goal and then a Roberts free-kick wasn’t far over the bar. Swansea had a good chance after Ballard gave the ball away and Allen’s shot skimmed the side-netting. Referee Keith Stroud came in for criticism from Barnes and Benno after twelve minutes for his inconsistency in not giving a free-kick for a foul on Stewart and then giving one for a similar offence against Swansea just afterwards. Five minutes later we had a penalty shout denied for a foul on Amad and then there was a major dust up around the centre circle involving a number of players including both goalkeepers. The upshot of it all was that O’Nien was red-carded for a foul, though Benno didn’t think that was fair and our fans certainly didn’t either. Batth came on for Roberts to shore us up and when the game eventually restarted a Darling shot was turned out by Patterson for the first corner.
The momentum was with Swansea but we were holding out and as the half-hour mark passed it remained 0-0. Stroud continued to ignore shirt-pulling on Stewart and I could see he was going to be booed off at half-time. Patterson was in good form and Swansea won their third corner which resulted in a fourth, though Barnesy was sure the ball had been headed out by Darling. We had our best chance so far when Clarke fed Stewart and again Barnes thought it was deflected for a corner but the ref gave a goal-kick. Next thing, up the other end Clarke made a good block on a Piroe shot to keep it goalless. Only two minutes of stoppage-time were announced, thankfully, and we made it to the break without conceding. As expected there was a lot of booing as the teams left the field.
Could we hold out for a draw? I felt that we could and even thought that we could nick a winner but my 3-1 prediction was looking very unlikely. We hadn’t made any further changes as we kicked off again. Neil soon went down in the box but nothing was given, unsurprisingly, and next thing we were one-down when Piroe, who sounded offside, scored from very close range. We had a bit of a mountain to climb but it was by no means impossible. Piroe was booked for a foul and Stroud received a very rare cheer. With the hour-mark approaching I wondered what changes Mowbray would make as we were still getting the worst of it. Benno suggested that we take Stewart off and maybe bring Bennette on. Our fans were doing their bit to support the team.
We were making the occasional attack and one of these really paid off in the sixty-fifth minute when Clarke passed to Stewart, whose header reached Neil and he smashed home from close range for the equalizer. In the seventieth minute we were suddenly behind again when a ricochet from Cullen went in. We battled back and won our first corner of the game. Having scored from one last weekend for the first time in ages, who knew what might happen? In the event there was another debatable decision as we conceded a free-kick. Fifteen minutes to go and we hadn’t made any more changes but shortly afterwards the game looked well out of our reach when a strong shot from Cooper eluded Patterson to make it 1-3. We made a quadruple swap, bringing on Bennette, Michu, Ba and Dajaku for Amad, Stewart, Clarke and Evans. I’d rather these changes had been made much earlier but they’d all have a short while to make their mark and maybe get a goal back. The stadium was rapidly emptying as six minutes of stoppage-time began but we couldn’t create any chances and it ended 1-3.
Down to ten men for more than three-quarters of the game after a debatable refereeing decision (one of several), it was always going to be difficult for us and Swansea took full advantage.
