Match report

Rotherham is always a difficult place to go, and so we have to be reasonably pleased to come away with a point. But Kenny Jackett's post match comment that this was two points lost rather than one gained is absolutely right. And hopefully he will be asking himself a few searching questions about how we let this happen, against a decidedly average Rotherham team which, with 20 minutes to go, was looking beaten.

It was the expected Swans side which lined up for kick off: Gueret in goal; Tate and Ricketts at right and left back; Britton wide right midfield with McLeod on the left and Bean alongside Martinez in the middle. Trundle and Akinfenwa were up front. There was no goalie among the subs, the bench being occupied by Goodfellow, Forbes, O'Leary, Connor, and Tudor-Jones.

The first half was frankly nothing to speak of, with both teams struggling to master the increasingly wet conditions and generally failing to string much together by way of constructive play. We tried to play some neat football to feet, but struggled to make any headway against a robust and physical opposition. Rotherham tried the more direct route, pinging the ball into the corners for Dion Burton to chase hard, but they too found it hard to put much together. This, of course, was until the 40th minute when a typical punt upfield from a Rotherham player bounced right through the heart of our defence pursued by the nippy Grant Leadbitter, who poked the ball home "through" Willy, who once again will think he could have done better.

This of course spurred the otherwise statuesque home fans into action, and it was highly amusing to see them silenced so promptly with an immediate response from the Swans. In fact, it was as a result of our best piece of play by far that we struck back - an excellent through ball from Britton to Trundle was followed by some lovely footwork by Lee, who danced inside a couple of hapless defenders before rifling home from close range. Do we hear £1million, Wednesday? Less than a minute had elapsed before the equaliser, and boy did we let the home fans know it. Things like that are always sweet at Rotherham!

Prior to that uncharacteristic burst of quality, the half had offered little. Willy almost gifted them the lead on five minutes when he attempted to "pass" a clearance out of defence, only to offer an open goal to a Rotherham striker - fortunately, brilliantly blocked by Ricketts. Andy Monkhouse dragged a shot wide from a good position and there was several blatant dives, including one each from Conlon and Trundle. McLeod hit a speculative effort well wide, and Willy flapped at a corner. Yuk - all horrible stuff really.bring on the Balti pies.

But the second half was a better effort all round, and the Swans began with better shape and more attacking intent, Martinez, Trundle and McLeod linking well in an early move. Although there was a useful riposte from Rotherham who swept the ball dangerously into the area only for Izzy to clear well. The same player headed over from a Swans corner on 56 minutes as we began to mount some pressure for the first time in the game. And this brought its reward on 59 minutes when we took the lead with a well-worked move. After some good work by Trundle, McLeod crossed low towards Akinfenwa who neatly dummied - allowing the ball to find Bean, who had popped up most unexpectedly in the area. Marcus kept his cool and finished well from ten yards. The Swans fans went wild, and mounted an excellent spell of vocal support which was replicated on the field by a further period of pressure. With 25 minutes to go we were suddenly well on top, playing well, and Rotherham frankly looked devoid of ideas and thoroughly deflated.

But then we managed to begin the process of losing the initiative. It began with the withdrawal of Britton for Forbes in a straight swap on the right wing. Forbes did nothing wrong, but Britton had been playing well, causing all sorts of problems with his thrusting runs forward. We certainly lost some impetus with his departure. Akinfenwa looked for a moment as though he was going to stretch the lead when an excellent run with the ball took him to the edge of the area, but he was unfortunately dispossessed just as he seemed poised to pull the trigger. And this was our last serious attack, as we inexplicably attempted to sit back and defend the lead. This "declaration" invited Rotherham to come at us, and so they did, on 70 minutes nearly getting an equaliser. Some lazy play by McCleod deep in their half allowed Rotherham to play the ball forward unchallenged. The move resulted in an incisive pass to Andy Monkhouse whose shot was goalbound, only to be defied by a fantastic one handed save from Willy.

A minute later Martinez was withdrawn. This could surely only have been for an injury, as he had been giving all the shape and cohesion to our play. He was replaced by O'Leary, leaving us with a midfield pairing capable of getting in a tackle or two (well, O'leary maybe), but not capable of holding the ball or distributing effectively. This was soon to become an obvious limitation for us. On 76 minutes we did manage a half chance when Trundle hit a snapshot from an acute angle well over the bar; but our attacks were becoming fewer and we were increasingly surrendering ground, especially when Trundle was substituted by Tudor-Jones, which relieved us of our most effective player at holding the ball up. By this time, McLeod was clearly shot to pieces, but he was allowed to stay on the field, thus depriving us of another outlet.

On 84 minutes Conlon managed a smart header on target from a corner, which Willy gathered gratefully. On 87 minutes a long range chip from a Rotherham player seemed to have caught Willy out, but he was relieved when the ball landed on the roof of the net. And in the dying minutes a flurry of high balls into our box caused us numerous flaps without any clear cut chances being created. When the extra time board went up we thought the three points were in the bag; but unfortunately, a last gasp attack from the home side saw us undone. Tate appeared to slip when attempting to intercept a hopeful long ball, allowing Dion Burton to cut inside and feed a neat ball to Conlon, who swept into an empty net. It was typical that this otherwise ungainly and generally useless striker managed to get the last laugh on us, but I remain very pleased that we never bought him.

So it was all very flat at the end, but on balance Rotherham deserved the point -largely because we gave them a chance and they took it. Perhaps a more positive outlook when in the lead, when we have so many attack minded players, would suit us better. And I'm afraid that one crucial failing on the playing side has still not been addressed - we need another quality midfielder to give us the drive, energy and control in the middle of the park that we often lack. Let's hope the season doesn't start to disappoint before we rectify this.

Player ratings:

Gueret - 6 A couple of flaps and perhaps could have done better with first goal.
Ricketts - 7 A confident and assured performance
Tate - 6 As above, but a late slip spoiled it
Iriekpen - 7 Solid and timely
Austin - 7 Concentrated on the "solid"
Britton - 7 Energetic and skilful
McLeod - 5 Some good defensive work, but offered little in his attacking role. Faded very badly.
Martinez - 7 kept us in control when we might have been outmuscled
Bean - 5 Scored a fine goal, but his contribution was otherwise negligible
Akinfenwa - 6 Battled hard up front without creating a clear strike on goal
Trundle - 8 great goal and brilliant in patches
Forbes - 6 Plenty of energy and forward running
O'Leary - 6 Got a few tackles in here and there.
OTJ - Only on for a few minutes (mind you they scored then!)

A word on the Swans support. Sometimes brilliant - great chanting, excellent singing, really spurring the team on. Sometimes embarrassingly crude and abusive, particularly towards females. Only a few idiots of course, but we can really do without that sort of behaviour. Particularly the disgusting Ripper song. No thanks.

So finishing with the positives; well done for the battling performance in difficult conditions (we may well have lost this type of game in the past). No bookings and still two points off the top. There's plenty to play for . let's get back on track at the Liberty (ouch) next week!

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