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Swansea v Blackpool
After a long three weeks without a home match, the Swans make a welcome return to the Swansea.com stadium to play Blackpool this Saturday.
Recently promoted from League One, Blackpool have settled well in the Championship, winning 6 of their last 10 matches including away victories at Reading, Middlesboro and Sheff Utd and are currently in 10th place in the table, two points above the Swans.
Ex-Liverpool Under-23’s manager Neil Critchley is their head coach, gaining promotion in his first full season there and has continued his success this season.
Their danger men Shayne Lavery and Jerry Yates have scored 12 goals between them so far and will need close marking.
Swans defender Ryan Bennett is suspended for this match after picking up 5 yellow cards, Ben Cabango the likely replacement.
Let’s hope the two week International break has helped the team to recover and re-group after the Bournemouth setback.
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Swansea 1 - Blackpool 1
After Piroe fired home his 11th goal of the season on 35 mins we were looking good for another home win, with 70% possession. Second half we were poor, lethargic and slow with our movement, inevitably letting Blackpool back into the match by conceding in the 85 min from a corner. Their number 10 Anderson was unmarked to hit the equaliser after Hamer punched the crossed ball straight out to him.
After the match Russell Martin explained that they had possibly overtrained our players during the two week break. The introduction of two subs, Obafemi and Smith for Piroe and Ntcham made no difference as we limped to the draw.
The ref was one of the worst we’ve seen down here, two penalty calls on Laird turned down and numerous dubious free kicks awarded to the opposition. Blackpool were well organised, robust in their play and uncompromising in their marking. Their head coach Neil Critchley, fresh from signing a new long term contract, had done his homework on us, admitting post match he’d changed his tactics and formation for this match, and it worked a treat.
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Four penalty shouts in one match, none given, at least one, possibly two nailed on, but the ref brushes our protests aside.
Last time he reffed us at home to Hull he declined to award us a sure fire penalty and lost us two points. The guy has form against us, I don’t know what we’ve done to upset him.
Last time out at Bournemouth, another nailed on penalty not given.
Russell Martin says he has a video compilation of our penalty incidents this season that he’s going to submit to the FA.
For me we have a history with biased refereeing, Steve Cooper complained about it last season and so have previous managers..
I don’t know what the answer is, but it’s spoiling the game.
Is it incompetence or biases?
If it was incompetence it would be the same for both sides.
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Estoban
Results hinge on a good standard of refereeing and yesterday was a classic case of incompetence from an experienced referee for reasons unknown.
Besides the penalty decisions he bizarrely tended to award Blackpool free kicks whenever Swans players made a tackle and ignored Blackpool players overzealous play.
He missed their goalkeeper handling outside the area, he missed a Blackpool hand ball in the area yet he yellow carded Bidwell for taking too long with a throw-in.
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I think we’re all agreed the ref was poor last Saturday. The standard of refereeing in the Championship is concerning.
All we’re asking is for fair play for both teams and unbiased decision making. Also for the assistant referees to take more responsibility when they have a better view of incidents, and not leave it for the referee to decide every time.
