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Swansea v Preston
Swansea v Preston, Friday 22 Dec 19:45
Preston are our next opponents in what is our final home fixture of 2023. Inexplicably the fixture has been moved from Saturday afternoon to a Friday night kick-off on police advice. An evening of office parties and get togethers as workers break up for Christmas it could be our lowest gate of the season.
Preston are just above us in the form table with 3 wins in the last 10 matches. They are an unpredictable team and in the last two games, having won 1-3 away at Huddersfield they go and get hammered 1-5 at home to Watford last Saturday.
We lost the reverse fixture 2-1 after taking the lead through Ashby first-half. As has been the pattern of play this season we conceded an equaliser second-half and the winner close to the end of the match.
Having had enough of Yorkshire teams, with three of our last four matches playing the white roses, we now turn to the red rose of Lancashire to see if we get any better luck.
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Be very worried. Sheffield Wednesday and QPR are both in the relegation zone. They are above us in the form table based on results of the last 10 games.
Is it time to press the panic button?
We are without a manager. Two candidates have already pulled out. John Eustace, out of work, has turned us down. Now we hear Chris Davies has turned us down. Why are they not wanting to come and manage a Championship club? It can only be our parsimonious owners, who are gradually gaining a reputation at Swansea throughout the football community as a club to avoid. The last three managers, Potter, Cooper and Martin, couldn’t wait to leave.
The next managerial appointment is crucial and the last thing we need is a rookie in charge to try and pull us out of the mire.
Our Championship future is at stake and the owners better get this appointment right. The clock is ticking.
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Swansea: Carl Rushworth, Josh Key, Jay Fulton, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Matt Grimes (c), Jamal Lowe, Jamie Paterson, Josh Tymon, Liam Walsh, Bashir Humphreys.
Subs: Andy Fisher, Joe Allen, Jerry Yates, Yannick Bolasie, Charlie Patino, Liam Cullen, Nathan Wood, Kyle Naughton, Ollie Cooper.
Preston: Dai Cornell, Liam Linday, Alan Browne (c), Ched Evans, Robbie Brady, Ali McCann, Jordan Storey, Andrew Hughes, Ryan Ledson, Duane Holmes, Brad Potts.
Subs: Freddie Woodman, Ben Whiteman, Will Keane, Mads Frokjaer-Jensen, Ben Woodburn, Liam Millar, Jack Whatmough, Milutin Osmajic, Kian Best.
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Swansea 2 (Paterson 60, 95’) - Preston 1 (Millar 67’)
Huge relief at full time as the Swans get the 3 points at home for only the third time this season.
It was two poor teams battling it out with vey little in the way of chances on goal. Paterson with two well taken goals was the difference, he is rejuvenated this season.
Another opposition super sub second-half, winger Millar, had the beating of Key. He scored from the right of goal to the far post, curling the ball into the top corner for their goal and almost repeated it a few minutes later, this time Rushworth finger tipping the ball away.
With the fans restless at our ineptitude, and singing anti-owner chants, Paterson rescued the points with a well taken goal with only two minutes left of the seven of added time.
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Firstly the most important thing about last night was the three points. We did it, just about. A last minute goal making a brace for Paterson and a huge sigh of relief all round.
But we were too ponderous in possession, too slow getting forward, vulnerable at the back, and Lowe on his own up front was crowded out.
Plenty of possession for possession’s sake in our own half, but always the opposition with less possession get proportionally more shots away than us.
There’s a lot wrong at the moment and we need an experienced manager asap to sort it out and get back to the standard of play that we know these players are capable of.
