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Swansea v Middlesbrough
Swansea v Middlesbrough, Mon 6 April 17:30
After being 3-1 down and out, our impressive recovery to get the draw at Sheff Utd, thanks mainly to our subs, was uplifting. We actually had a penalty awarded as well, first one since 4 October at home to Leicester.
It was good to see Idah back from injury and showing why we paid all that money for him.
Our defending is a concern however after conceding eight goals in the last three matches. It has been a problem all season and hasn’t improved under Vitor Matos.
It’s high flying Middlesbrough up next and the manager they stole from right under our noses last November, Kim Hellberg. He has done very well there and as recently as 9 Feb they were top of the table after six straight wins.
Recently they’ve slipped a bit though, no wins in the last four matches and lost 1-2 at home to Millwall yesterday.
For the Swans the bad news is that one of our top players Ethan Galbraith is out for the season with a calf injury picked up in that meaningless friendly between Wales and N.Ireland last Tuesday.
Should be a big holiday crowd for this one, let’s hope the players recover in time, some of our globetrotters for the friendly internationals looked jet lagged on Friday.
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Swansea 2 (Vipotnik 20’ pen, 45’ pen) - Middlesborough 2 ( Bangura 12’, Conway 75’ pen)
Young Sam Parker in at right back, overall a good display, but left exposed without cover a few times.
Middlesbrough looked a class side and they gave us a lesson in passing and possession. Fortunately for us their usual scorers were missing. We had two pens and a third turned down, all valid, but theirs was dubious and a levelling up by the ref.
Vipotnik now up to 20 league goals for the season and surely will be on his way in the summer even with his new four year contract. He could have had a hat-trick but skied his shot when well placed.
We deserved the draw for such a brave defensive display and could have even won late on when Cullen’s goal bound shot was saved full stretch by their goalie.
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I don’t know why he pulled Vipotnik, leading scorer and on a hat trick.
We really battled in this one. Now we need to transfer this kind of strong defensive performance into away games.
The Riversiders obviously the better team but they didn't have their shooting boots on today and couldn’t break us down and missed injured ex-Swan Morgan Whittaker and Hayden Hackney.
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Hi guys, cracking match yesterday, Boro desperate for the win but Swans are a tough team to beat at home.
Two deserved penalties but Boro penalty was weak decision, foul was outside the box, ref trying to even things up.
Some pretty football by Boro but they just couldn’t score.
Fair result in the end.
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So here are the five matches left for us this season
A Leicester - Sat 11 April 15:00
H Southampton - Sat 18 April 15:00
A QPR - Tue 21 April 19:45
A Norwich - Sat 25 April 15:00
H Charlton - Sat 2 May 12:30
Some tough ones there.
Leicester desperate for points to avoid the drop, but the only team in our remaining games below us in the form table
Southampton can’t stop winning as they shoot up the table to the play-offs, top of the form table
QPR win big lose big, depends which team turns up
Norwich third in form table and another team on a winning run
Charlton up and down season, an unpredictable team
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Good to see Matos blooding the youngsters yesterday. Parker looked good attacking the ball but was left exposed defensively on the right too often.
