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Swansea v Oxford
Swansea v Oxford Saturday 3 May 12:30
This is it, the last match of the season, an early kick-off.
The curtain comes down on yet another year of turmoil at the club.
A change of owners, a change of chairman, a change of manager, a change of players.
Flirting with the play-offs, then relegation, then play-offs again, mathematically at least.
Our captain, ten years at the club, betrayed us and ran away and left us in the lurch at the worst possible time for more money, right at the end of the transfer window. He who was already made a multi-millionaire by the Swans, left like a rat fleeing a sinking ship.
Luckily we had a loyal coach who took over and rescued our season and transformed our non-functional players into a solid unit again and playing for each other.
The Oxford match has nothing riding on it for either club except pride. Both clubs were threatened with relegation but are now safe.
Swans will want to end the season on a high after the Millwall defeat ended our unbeaten run.
Oxford will have achieved their aim of consolidation in the Championship after promotion last season.
Let’s hope key defender Darling has recovered from his injury and plays, we missed him on Saturday.
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Should be quite an emotional day with the news that Swans legends Joe Allen and Kyle Naughton are retiring.
Good luck to them both.
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Joe Allen captain for the day in his final match.
Swans: Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Hannes Delcroix, Josh Tymon, Joe Allen (c), Goncalo Franco, Lewis O'Brien, Ronald, Jisung Eom, Zan Vipotnik.
Subs: Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Florian Bianchini, Liam Cullen, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton, Ollie Cooper, Ben Lloyd, Sam Parker
Oxford: Matt Ingram, Cameron Brannagan (c), Ole Romeny, Ben Nelson, Alex Matos, Tyler Goodrham, Ruben Rodrigues, Greg Leigh, Hidde ter Avest, Stan Mills, Michal Helik
Subs: James Cumming, Sam Long, Elliott Moore, Przemyslaw Placheta, Mark Harris, Matty Phillips, Joe Bennett, Marselino Ferdinand, Peter Kioso
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Swansea 3 (Eom 23’, Ronald 57’, Cullen 82’) - Oxford 3 (Leigh 40’, Helik 82’, Placheta 93’)
A great game for the neutral with 6 goals but for Swans fans it was frustration as Oxford came from behind three times to draw the match, third time with two minutes left of added time.
Swans defence wide open with Oxford capitalising on uncharacteristic errors.
What O’Brien was thinking was anyone’s guess as he gifted them a third goal with a silly pass to nobody which was gratefully picked up by Oxford who couldn’t believe their luck, ex-Swan Placheta finishing off the move. We missed Darling and our defence suffered in his absence, same as last week.
Naughton came on, Allen gave him the captains armband in what was Kyle’s 300th and final match for the Swans. Both legends and will be missed. The two youngsters Parker and Lloyd came on but didn’t affect the scoreline. Two points unnecessarily dropped today.
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Yes, disappointing that we let in three goals and yes we missed Darling. He’s been offered an improved contract but looks as if he’s on his way and determined to leave. Delcroix not the answer and he will return to Burnley. Wycombe in the play-offs so we’ll have to wait and see on Joe Low availability, we’ll probably need two centre-backs unless Lissah can step up from the Academy.
Anyway we were the better team again yesterday and at Millwall but just the one point from the two games.
A busy summer ahead on the recruitment front with all the departures.
Good luck to Joey and Kyle, great send off yesterday.
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Hi guys, that’s it then, end of the season again. Three months without football is hard, although we need a rest after all that’s gone on at the club this season. The highs and the lows all since the turn of the year, from the threat of relegation to just missing the playoffs.
Still, we have the transfer window to look forward to and the ins and outs of players.
Sorry to see Naughts and Joey go, what a massive impact they’ve made to the Swans, good luck in retirement both.
