The Lads, under Dodds 3, welcomed Swansea to Wearside and basically lost the game with a first-half showing that exemplified everything that's wrong with our team. Slow, turning back rather than forwards, always passing it about in our own box from goal kicks. Add to that a weird formation and we could very easily have been behind by a lot more than two. A more positive second half brought us hope and a goal, but we got what we deserved. Nowt.
Midweek rumours about Clarke's injury turned out to be exaggerated, although his absence today meant opportunity for someone else - and the discussion lasted all the way from sunny Bishuuurrrp to Sunderland. That and card-happy Ballard. Oh, and the small matter of Beale, of course. Confession time - I only listened to one of his interviews, and that was the first one. Let's just say his brief tenure brought out the best and worst in our fans, and it might well take KLD and Speakman quite a while to recover from the last two months.
Patterson
Seelt O'Nien (C) Hjelde
Hume Neil Styles Ekwah
Bellingham Ba
Rusyn
...and a bench of Bishuuurrrp, Pembele, Burstow, Mundle, Aouchiche, Rigg, Hemir, Kelly, and Lavery.
The sun was out as we crossed the bridge and stayed out as we tried to work out who'd be playing where - push Ekwah forward and let Styles sit deep? We defended the north end and the Swans kicked off, while we played Ba left and Naz right. Wrong way round, surely?
From the off, Swansea did everything we didn't and hit crosses early, closed us down when we had the ball and ran into space when we didn't. The green-clad Swans won a corner within half a minute, and we didn't get the ball over the halfway line for five minutes as we seemed to be treating it as a training game and showed a worrying lack of urgency. Our first decent passage of play broke down halfway up the pitch and when we did get Naz into the inside left channel, he fired way over.
Ba did manage to shake off his marker on 17 to have a shot saved, but when Naz crossed to nobody the visitors broke, Patto could only parry the shot and the follow-up was poked home from the back post. We did manage another shot but it was wide, Patto parried another then yet another early cross brought a miss Danny Graham would have been embarrassed by.
Ten minutes after the first goal, O'9's pass was sloppy and easily intercepted just in our half, they burst forward and it was two.
We briefly tried swapping Ba and Naz, but it made little difference as we simply didn't put any pressure on the opposition when they had the ball, with the relatively ancient Joe Allen sitting in front of their defence picking his passes unchallenged. Our three man defence was caught out by simple balls over the top down either side, so we brought Styles (Harry to the kids, Nobby to us older folk) to the right. Another good Patto save, this time at the foot of his right hand post, preceded a weak Naz shot on the turn as three added minutes were announced.
All we could manage in that was a booking for Hume when the ref got his wires crossed and it was thankfully over for fifteen minutes.
No changes for the second half, which was strange as we needed something to change.
Thankfully, our attitude did and we actually played in their half - but still managed to be second to most things. Hjelde shot way over as he pushed forward, and ten minutes in Neil slotted it through for Naz to draw a save with a low effort. Soon after, Styles made way for Mundle, who came to the left.
There was a big round of applause for Tony Mowbray on the hour, then Joe Allen was subbed. Phew. Hume was carded for an offence he had nothing to do with as the ref got his wires crossed, just to add to our disciplinary issues.
With 20 to go, Hemir and Rigg replaced Naz (nooooo!) and Ba. Young Chris showed admirable positivity, looking to run at the defence or pick a forward pass. A free kick for a pull/push on Jobe was floated in from the left and Luke had an age to pick his spot and nod home. Sort of makes up for their second goal, I suppose. We gave Adil ten minutes at the expense of Hjelde and went two at the back and five added minutes were announced. Patto had to make a save up at the angle, then came up for a couple of corners and even forced a save from the second.
Dodds was carded for moaning about Swansea's time-wasting and that was it.
Deserved nowt, got nowt. Thoroughly disappointing.
Man of the Match? Goal aside, Luke had a poor afternoon, Bellingham was weak in and out of possession, and as a team we looked back rather than forward far too often.
Probably Hume.
