Sunderland made their longest journey of the season and came back with nothing more than a little bit of pride restored after a dismal first half which had seen two similar goals set us behind. A spirited second period brought a Clarke goal, and another ref might well have seen the "dive" the same player was booked for in the dying seconds differently, and given a penalty. 1-2 it was.
An early start saw folks wearing t-shirts and shivering as they awaited buses, but recovered their core temperature on the coach as the thermostat was set at 28. Nice. An uneventful journey, broken only by a services stop where we were mistaken for Stokies, saw us at the ground just after one. A bit late to head into town, while half of Bishop seemed to have taken the aeroplane option from Ponteland to Bristol and minibus to Swansea. Some journey, that, but they missed Mowbray shaking hands and posing for selfies as the Lads got off the coach. It's the first time I've seen him up close in real life, and even when he's smiling, he looks like he could flatten you with his little finger.
Patterson
Gooch Batth O'Nien Alese
Neil Evans
Roberts Embleton Clarke
Pritchard
..and a bench of Bass, Wright, Matete, Cirkin, Amad (or Diallo), Ba, and Benette, all announced by the Go Compare man.
We defended the goal in front of our fans and Pritch kicked off south, immediately making my line-up off target as he was as deep as Embo most of the time.
With the singing section of the home fans immediately to our left, the noise was impressive - but how, man.. if you can sing like that why don't you get shot of the bloody drum? There's just no need.
To say we were second best is a bit of an understatement, as the Swans passed it around quickly, while we played several passes without looking and consequently gave it away. It took only 40 seconds to concede our first corner, although had Alese not made the tackle the consequences could well have been worse. It quickly became reminiscent of the first half at Boro, although we did get forward and tried to fashion a chance - but when your forward option is Pritch on the edge of the area with his back to goal, the defence has a relatively easy job.
Swansea, on the other hand, caused us to scramble the ball away a couple of times, and Patto had a couple of saves to make, before they broke through. The ball was knocked back in from our right, and Cooper's low shot from a few yards out hit O'9's leg and spun past Patto into his bottom right corner with 13 gone.
A veritable Mount Snowdon to climb if we continued to play in the same manner. Which we did, Neil being deservedly booked a couple of minutes later after we'd lost possession yet again and the home side broke out of defence. Evans followed him into the book soon after, but that was more down to the ref mistaking a full-blooded challenge for a foul. He earned even more of our displeasure when Alese was pulled so obviously that his shirt was ripped, but no foul was given. To add insult to injury, when he eventually let our man go off for a new shirt, he wouldn't let him back on until Swansea had taken a free kick on our left where he should have been.
Suitably attired in a hole-free Gansey, he tried to help Clarke down the left, but it was Roberts on the right who won our first corner, on 37 minutes. We then won another, this time off Clarke on the left as we entered the last few minutes of the half and put together our first real spell of half-decent play up top. That's better, we thought - see the half out and give ourselves a shake during the break.
Oh dear. A Swansea injury caused a break in play that removed our momentum, and three added minutes were announced. A dubious free-kick, again, the ref mistaking a hefty challenge for a foul, this time by Alese - gave Swansea a chance, which they took, hit to the back post. Again, it was knocked back from our right and another low shot went through legs and bobbled into Patto's bottom right-hand corner. Dead and buried, we thought, based on that performance, and there was plenty to be miserable about during the break.
I assume Mowbray's countenance in the dressing room may have been at odds with that display outside the ground before the game.
There were no changes for the second half, and we were immediately more lively than the first. Alese was pushing up more, and we were making the right side of their defence work hard. Pritchard played what looked like a nice one over to Dan Neil, flying in from our right at the far post, but the ball was a foot too high and it went for a goal kick. Five minutes in, Clarke was played in on the corner of the box and fired low across the keeper and just inside the foot of the far post. Lovely goal, Jack, and we celebrated as if we'd at least equalised. Forty minutes plus to get something - let's go.
It was a much better contest, but we still suffered from a reluctance to shoot, with Pritch preferring to look for the pass rather than the effort on goal. On 64 Roberts made way for Bennette, and with virtually his first touch he nutmegged his marker and zipped away down the line to get us up on our feet in appreciation.
We almost went two behind again when O9 couldn't complete a clearance, but Patto tipped over the resultant shot. From the corner he did well again, keeping out another effort.
On 77 we brought on Amad, Ba, and Matete for Embo, Neil, and Pritch - and it got all lively. Amad drove into the box but his low shot was comfortable for the keeper, then he, Ba, and Bennette all had efforts blocked as we piled forward. A few juicy challenges raised the pulses on and off the field, and the noise went up a notch. Sensing the possibility of us getting a second, Swansea resorted to a fair bit (actually, unfair) of feigning injury, and that trick of falling over as soon as they felt the presence of an opponent behind them in the defensive third. Very irritating, as was the ref - but six added minutes were announced and we sniffed the possibility of another late equaliser.
There was a flurry of bookings as Swansea refused to give us the ball for a throw and Gooch lost his rag, then it nearly happened. Alese was there again, helping us set Clarke along the by-line, and as he got into the box a defender made very obvious contact with him, sending him sprawling. Out came the whistle, up went the arm - and pointed for a Swansea ball. Worse still, he booked Clarke and all hell broke loose. Look, I'm biased (very) but if that wasn't a penalty it certainly wasn't a yellow. We kept up the pressure in the few seconds that followed, but the home side kept us at bay.
An unbiased observer would probably say that Swansea were worth the win, but I suspect they'd also be wondering about the validity of that "no penalty" decision as well.
Man of the Match? Well, he scored, and looked even more threatening later in the game when the busybody kids came on and we started to make our short passing more accurate. Clarke it is, then.
Can we not magic up a centre-forward from somewhere? That was the general discussion on the coach - once we'd eviscerated the ref, 'natch - as we waited to leave and some civil disorder broke out. First in a hedge (a pretty effective barrier, as it turned out) then outside the west side.
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For the record, into the ref's bad book were Neil, Gooch, Clarke, Evans, and Embo. No doubt we'll be up on an FA charge for that.
