Swansea v Bristol City

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Swansea v Bristol City Sat 21 Feb 12:30
Another early kick-off and this time the opposition are the Cider Army from over the bridge. That match is closely followed by another home game against Preston on the Tuesday, so two tough games in prospect against teams above us in the table.
First of all the Robins of Bristol who convincingly beat us 3-0 up there with Matos watching on from the stands and O’Dea’s disastrous one game in charge before he left and Matos took over two days later. To be fair we were without suspended key defenders Cabango and Tymon, but why were Vipotnik, Widell, Franco, Inoussa and Yalcouye all on the bench?
After the poor showing at Derby last Saturday questions have to be asked as to why we can’t replicate our good home form in away matches. Two goals conceded from corners, our set-piece defending is back to haunt us.
With 72% possession we couldn’t score a goal in 97 minutes of play, with just two shots out of fifteen on target. We actually looked like a Russell Martin team again, passing the ball to death in our own half, I thought those days were behind us.
A couple of wins will get us back on track but we will not be where we all want to be until Matos can eradicate our inherent weaknesses.

[Estoban]

It’s tight at the top of the Championship with six clubs within two points or less of sixth place.
Next opponents the Robins scraped a draw at home to Wrexham with an 89th minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw last night, both are vying for a play-off spot.
Swans are languishing in 16th place after a surprise capitulation at Derby to two set-piece goals on Saturday. Yet we have two home games against play-off contenders coming up and a chance to catch up with the pack if we can win those games, being six points behind sixth place Derby.

[Estoban]

I see fringe first team players Ollie Cooper and Sam Parker got some game time with the U-21’s last night.
They beat Bournemouth 4-2 in the Professional Development League South. Swans are fifth and Bournemouth second in the table.

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Swans: Lawrence Vigouroux, Ethan Galbraith, Ben Cabango (c), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon, Jay Fulton, Goncalo Franco, Melker Widell, Gustavo Nunes, Jisung Eom, Zan Vipotnik
Subs: Andy Fisher, Josh Key, Malick Yalcouye, Ishe Samuels-Smith, Liam Cullen, Leo Walta, Joel Ward, Ollie Cooper, Ronald

Bristol City: Radek Vitek, Adam Randell, Rob Atkinson, Delano Burgzorg, Jason Knight (c), Tomi Horvat, George Tanner, Neto Borges, Sinclair Armstrong, Noah Eile, George Earthy
Subs: Joe Lumley, Cameron Pring, Max Bird, Joe Williams, Scott Twine, Mark Sykes, Emil Riis, Sam Bell, Sam Morsy

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Swansea 1 (Vipotnik 26’) - Bristol City 0
Today it was retribution time for the 3-0 defeat at Ashton Gate in front of a sold out away end of Bristolians. The Robins are a good side this season under Gerhard Struber and made it difficult for us, but it was another win to add to our impressive home record since Vitor Matos took charge.
The Championship’s leading scorer Vipotnik fired home his 15th league goal of the season and it proved decisive in a hard fought win.
We are six points off a play-off spot after Wrexham moved into the last play-off place on 51 points with an impressive 5-3 win over fourth place Ipswich. It is so tight up there with seven teams in the table between us and Wrexham.

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Reaction from Vitor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxMlRuOdY68

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………….and reaction from Struber

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxQATRDflRM

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Match highlights from Sky Sports

https://www.skysports.com/football/v...hip-highlights

[Estoban]

Great win against a side above us in the table, full away allocation made for a good atmosphere. One goal enough to decide the outcome.
We move on to a full house on Tuesday and SnoopDog!

[Estoban]

Extended highlights

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/ext...bristol-city-5