How I saw it

[champs95]

I strange sort of game. We didnt deserve to be one up. They did nothing to get 2-1 in front.
Their first goal hit the post, and came back off the Rayas back and trickled in. Then a good 2nd goal next attack! Dack came so close to equalising with 4 mins to go, only for a brilliant save to deny him, and without the ball going out of play they went up the other end and killed us with the 3rd.
It's such a close division, and fine margins win or lose games, which come thick and fast. Onto West Brom.

Lenihan injury looks bad unfortunately
I did think Rodwell stepped in and looked good again.

[AucklandRover]

I strange sort of game. We didnt deserve to be one up. They did nothing to get 2-1 in front.
Their first goal hit the post, and came back off the Rayas back and trickled in. Then a good 2nd goal next attack! Dack came so close to equalising with 4 mins to go, only for a brilliant save to deny him, and without the ball going out of play they went up the other end and killed us with the 3rd.
It's such a close division, and fine margins win or lose games, which come thick and fast. Onto West Brom.

Lenihan injury looks bad unfortunately
I did think Rodwell stepped in and looked good again.

As I said on the other thread, Champs, I thought we were a bit arrogant in that first half. Did we think we were Wenger's Arsenal?!
We know that we aren't good enough to dominate a whole game, and there was no way Swansea weren't going to react in the second half. It was a bit like the Bristol City game.
I could see the thinking behind the substitutions, but not the subsequent positioning.
Early days and a bit premature, perhaps, but Rothwell looks like he's not the man for an emergency, and Armstrong doesn't add much when the other team is in possession.
I really hope Graham doesn't get injured. We are not the same team when he goes off.

[Despair]

Saw this one and agree. When DG departs the ball comes back into our half far too readily.
For me, from the limited amount I’ve seen of us, I still think Williamson gives far more composure within our central defence (once the DM/DL partnership is broken).
And yes, there was a little bit of an appearance of arrogance ie ‘job nearly done’ by us that we didn’t respond enough to their not unexpected raise of their game from the second half ko. It seem to progress from a very satisfying confident/assured play to almost a overly confident nothing really to beat sort of lowered commitment.
Brought about by Swansea’s failures of onslaught onto our keeper that first period???

[AucklandRover]

Despair - it does show what a part confidence plays. You have to turn control into goals. Otherwise, football can come back and bite you. Two examples for us: this one and Bristol City. And then there was the Arsenal-Leicester game, the other day. Leicester should have been three-up after 30 minutes, and then the match turned on its head.
Here, the Swansea players were completely transformed by the own-goal.
In terms of long-term investment, we could really do with a Tugay in midfield - someone to put a foot on the ball and take the pressure off with accurate passing.
Players of sufficient quality, though, are very, very expensive.
However, as you said on the other thread, this setback is characteristic of the Championship. The tendency to generalise from one result (good or bad) is going to leave fans with a lot of egg on their faces.
Win one-draw one-lose one from now on puts in the mid-sixties. I'd certainly have settled for that in August!
The fact is, we do still have quite a few players who are getting through on effort and spirit. A lot of other teams have a higher percentage of players who are more technically gifted. Mowbray himself has regularly acknowledged that. What we cannot afford to do is lose self-belief and the desire to battle in every game.
I'm beginning to wonder if Nuttall shouldn't have been given a little more game-time. He is still the closest thing we've got to a natural substitute for Graham. At the moment, Brereton looks to me to be no closer to the level required in the first team than Nuttall did, despite BB clearly having more natural ability. Of course, a spectacular goal might give him the confidence-boost he seems to need.

[champs95]

I just take a philosophical look, and try my best to not get too worked up of one result.
Like it wasn't worth getting too excited over beating Leeds.

I'm unsure I agree we where arrogant.
Neither side had a shot on goal in the first half. We got a pen without creating a chance.
They equalised (which was a fluke coming off Raya's back) and got the second without having a shot/header/chance in our box all night.
On any other night Dack equalises with 4 mins to go, and we come away with a draw.
The ball didn't go in, it went up the other end and they broke and got a 3rd with their 3rd shot of the night.

Its football, it happens.
Us losing Graham was not a factor after we beat Leeds.
So it isn't when we lose to a side who came out of the Prem a few months ago with £147m more than us.

We have to dust ourselves down and go again vrs WBA.
You simply cant win every week.

[Despair]

Champs , I certainly was not/am not of the opinion that we SHOULD be beating Swans, but over the actual proceedings of the game I am simply voicing my thoughts. Again don’t misconstrue as criticism.
I am non too sure why BB is playing out over on the left leaving BD lone man as spearhead where overall he was very much isolated (despite the almost chance he got that you refer to) . As the saying goes IF my aunt had testes she’d be my uncle.
Overall we didn’t sufficiently react when we went into the second half and they upped their game , as expected. Yes they got a lucky break with the first , but that’s football , it happens . With their second half performance they justifiably took the game and the points.
I have no prob at all with that,
We now move on to the next, and look to add to our overall points tally.

[champs95]

Champs , I certainly was not/am not of the opinion that we SHOULD be beating Swans, but over the actual proceedings of the game I am simply voicing my thoughts. Again don’t misconstrue as criticism.
I am non too sure why BB is playing out over on the left leaving BD lone man as spearhead where overall he was very much isolated (despite the almost chance he got that you refer to) . As the saying goes IF my aunt had testes she’d be my uncle.
Overall we didn’t sufficiently react when we went into the second half and they upped their game , as expected. Yes they got a lucky break with the first , but that’s football , it happens . With their second half performance they justifiably took the game and the points.
I have no prob at all with that,
We now move on to the next, and look to add to our overall points tally.

Cheers Despair. Good post and for the record, I was disappointed we lost last night too.
I thought beforehand we would go get a result. Maybe we are victims of our early season form? We now expect us to go get results. In one hand, that shows how far we have come.
But we have set the standard now, so we have to try stick to it.
I agree, we isolate Graham. But I feel the system works more than it doesn't. And we are still work in progress.
So in a way, some results like this will happen.
We have always bounced back, so hopefully we do now.

All I am trying to suggest, is if we did end up losing to WBA its still not the end of the world.
In the long-term it could do us some good?
Time will tell.

[Despair]

It’s ironic that 10 mins or so before they got their first I was commenting to some guy next to me that it’s good to see sides of this sort of quality clearly showing us great respect, this prob because of our mettle in being a hard team to break down. Heightened maybe after the Leeds clash.
And did actually use the term our assurance is maybe bordering on arrogance, not in a nasty way by our players, but more like ‘elevated confidence’.
As it proved, in this league it’s maybe best to shy from anything approaching such like until final whistle.
As you say they’d done nothing really up to that point and didn’t give any real indication that they were capable of such beyond maybe a equaliser. 3 : 1 was not truly representative ( I felt 2 : 1 was justified purely upon their second half counter challenge).
Yes I can sort of understand keeping BD as spearhead as he is the most likely to find a goal . But big BB way out wide (where irrespective he did ok ) is a large target missing from up front ctr despite his lack of experience. But TM knows far more than me just where this lad is in his development so I’ll readily accept he’s not yet ready.
Roll on WBA at weekend.

[AucklandRover]

An interesting thread. I wouldn't be surprised if Swansea now have a decent run. Confidence is such an important factor - as the last 30 minutes showed - and we know they have some good-quality players.
Derby have just won four-one at WBA. Heaven knows if that's a good thing or a bad thing for our prospects on Saturday! The Baggies have scored 32 and conceded 22. I will definitely NOT be predicting 0-0!
Readers of "form" must "despair" when studying the Championship. Who would have picked Birmingham to go on a ten-match unbeaten run (admittedly, including six draws)? The BBC Championship table, showing the last five results in three colours, demonstrates very little sign of consistency. Boro are at home to Derby on Saturday, with Leeds hosting Forest. Those are two key games in terms of the top four, but I wouldn't feel at all confident about predicting the outcomes.
In other words, it's all a bit of a mystery, and those people who argue that results are all down to the manager have a lot of explaining to do!