In our final home game of the season, in front of a bumper crowd of 23,036 (our second highest attendance of the season), we earned a hard-fought point against Swansea, who were seeking a win to keep their playoff hopes intact. I was hoping and kind of expecting us to go all out and go out in style, but it was the same style of play, which was still good nevertheless. Also, it was great to see a very high attendance for a game that meant nothing. The Allam days are a distant memory and we have got our club back.
We headed into the game with two wins, two draws and one loss–it is great to have that record and it is much better than last season–and we won our previous game last week against another team fighting for playoffs, Watford, 1-0. On the other hand, Swansea have won four and drawn one. On paper, they looked the better side–they have picked up 19 points out of a possible 21. Also, they had something to fight for, unlike us, so we needed to be up to the mark.
According to LiveScore, we were in a 4-2-3-1 formation and Rosenior made one change to the back line; Alfie Jones came in for Sean McLoughlin. That meant we had Karl Darlow in goal; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Callum Elder as the back four; Jean Seri and Regan slater were just below them and Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, Ozan Tufan and Harry vaughan were above Adama Traore, who was upfront on his own. It was great to have Jones back as he was a key player and he put his life on the line during certain parts of the game to ensure that we did not allow them to score. His defending abilities did not just blow me away, his eagerness to get up and act like a winger was something special. I could say the same about all of our back four to be honest and they have improved significantly since Rosenior took over. There are a few little errors that we make–for example, not clearing it or not making the right pass–but they will all be rectified next season.
It could not have gone better for us in the early minutes of the first period and it did not take us long to put the ball into the back of the net; in the 3rd minute, Jean Seri flighted an exquisite ball towards an onrushing Harry Vaughan, who had heaps of space to drive into the penalty area. As much as he would have loved to get his first goal in a black and amber shirt, he squared it to Tufan, but he did not get the final touch that slotted the ball into the net as Cabango tried to anticipate the danger, however, the ball struck his chest and it trickled into the net. I was not expecting this. We have gone from struggling to score a first half goal at home, let alone the opening goal and we have done it back-to-back; however, our record for going on a brace is terrible and as anticipated, we did not. I am not saying that we perform terribly, however, we need to be able to score more goals in matches if we want to fight for promotion next season.
Tufan did have another chance to extend our lead; one of their defenders–sorry, I should have been paying attention to his name–tried to stupidly dribble backwards with the ball. Tufan came from behind and barged him off the ball, with the keeper way off his line. Their player did go down, but the referee was happy for play to go on; however, the linesmen put his flag up for a foul and before Tufan could get his shot off, it was called back for a free kick. The annoying thing was that the referee was happy with the challenge and we could have gone two nil up in the early minutes. Unfortunately, the linesmen have been like that all season and they never give things our way.
After this, Swansea responded with a brilliant spell of possession based football. We must love defending and having all of the pressure on us as we always end up on the back foot at the same time in every match recently. I believe the last game when we took control of the whole game from going one nil up was against QPR on 28 January, in which we won comfortably 3-0. Since, we have been averaging just one goal per match, however, that is all we have needed in most of the matches. It is good to be able to get over the line with one goal, however, it is not very enjoyable for the fans, especially when we score early and the opposing team takes control.
Then, after a particular period of pressure resulted in the visitor’s equaliser; in the 39th minute, after doing our best at keeping them away from our box, Jamie paterson found Cundle at the edge of the box, where he sweetly struck it first time into the right corner of the net. There was nothing we could do about this, even Darlow made himself as big as possible. It was a pleasing goal, however it was their only big chance of the half.
Despite the way the first half concluded, we unexpectedly dominated the early stages after the restart and in the 50th minute we were awarded a free kick close to the edge of the box. Tufan’s low free-kick hit was struck, but it hit the side-netting, with their keeper beaten. But, this was when it got very embarrassing for us; we all thought that it was in, therefore we started celebrating and, as I sit next to the away fans, we started mocking them. It did not end well and we all looked like a bunch of idiots, even the stewards laughed at us after our fans tried to break their weak, thin, yellow line. All he needed to do was put a bit more curl on it and then we could have not made a fool out of ourselves. Thanks Tufan.
Thankfully, we went on to dominate the game and, if anything, we looked more likely to win the longer the game went on. The only chance Swansea had was when their winger crossed the ball into the box, but Cundle’s header was not a threat for Darlow, who made a routine save.
Then, in the 72nd minute we should have taken the lead. Adama Traore found some space to run into on the right before teeing up Tufan waiting at the edge of the box. Again, he charismatically hit the ball and it was heading into the right direction to make the net bulge, but he was denied by the crossbar and the ball went to safety.
For the remainder of the half, Swansea came back into it and we went defensive, which was smart as Swansea were going to throw everything at us to try and keep their hopes for playoffs alive. But, we dealt with it well and the final home game of the season ended 1-1.
The stats do not look good on paper, but if you were there you would have seen how well we played; we were winning the ball back superbly, creating some excellent chances, our passing was immense and there were some great individual performances. Even though we won our first home game and drew this one, it was a much more pleasurable match to watch and I am starting to have confidence with our defence as we would have lost not just this game, but all of the other draws that we have chalked up since Rosenior came in. However, for Swansea, their hopes at Premier League football next season has been crushed and they will have to wait another year. To be honest, they will be back better next season as they have the players and abilities to do so.
It feels weird writing this knowing that it is the last home game of the season, however, it will give me a break and I still have one more game left, against Luton, who are not going to be easy. Hopefully, If we can play like this, with more confidence and the ability to create dangerous opportunities, with the finishing, we could possibly come out of it with at least a point. I really hope this is the case as I am still dying to witness another win on the road–I have only seen one out of 11.