Match Report |
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Bournemouth 1 Swansea City 4 | |
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Bournemouth 1 Swansea City 4, Pictures by Andrew Thomas Report Dai Smith
De Vries,
Easy, easy ….. well no, not really. Despite the scoreline Bournemouth had large chunks of this game. After
around fifteen minutes of the first half the Swans went ahead. Ferry Bodde hit a delightful free kick which curled into the top left corner while the Bournemouth defence were still setting the defensive wall.
Rangel, Lawrence, Monk, Painter, Butler, Pratley, Bodde, Anderson, Scotland, Feeney.  The Swans second had a stroke of good fortune. After a Swans shot which the keeper was around a yard away from touching - the ref amazingly gave a corner. There was nothing however fortunate about the Lawrence finish. He connected well with his head from around 10 yards and found the corner of the net.  Bournemouth were given a lifeline when they were fortunately awarded a penalty for what appeared to be a clean Lawrence challenge. Lee Bradbury made no mistake from the spot.  Bournemouth came out for the second half and pressed for an equaliser. There were one or two nervy moments during this period, where Bournemouth could well have equalised. And could well have had a goal if it hadn't been a couple of smashing saves from Dorus - including a point blank save from a header. It was not going to be Bournemouth's day though, and a hand ball from a defender to prevent a Lawrence header from a corner gave us an opportunity to wrap the game up. Feeney placed the penalty to the goalkeepers left who dived the right way but the penalty was so well placed into the corner that he had little chance.  The game was put beyond doubt on 88 minutes when Feeney was played through by Pratley. He outpaced the defender and finished well coolly lifting the ball over the keeper.
Another excellent result away from home puts us top of the league after a quarter of the season, but there are worrying signs that our fledgling promotion bandwagon could yet be derailed by better opposition. Despite the final score, this game looked in the balance for long periods of the second half, with the Swans protecting a 2-1 lead and conceding territory, posession, a penalty shout, and several chances to a limited Bournemouth side, who look to be in for a long, hard winter. If we'd conceded an equalizer at that stage, a revitalized Bournemouth might even have been favourites to go on and win it, but thanks to a couple of good saves by deVries, we managed to see off the danger, allowing Warren Feeney to get his reward for a hard-working display with a couple of late goals to seal the win. Bodde's opener was a beautifully curled free kick, which caught out the keeper while he looked to be still organising the wall. The second came from a fortunate corner, which Lawrence did well to glance in at the near post. Lawrence was in the action again a few minutes later, as he let his man get goal-side in the area. His recovery challenge looked clean enough to me, but the ref decided otherwise, and atoned for his earlier error in giving us the corner by awarding Bournemouth the chance to get back in to it, which they did through Lee Bradbury. After our rocky period in the second half, we wrapped things up when a home defender stupidly handled the ball under pressure from Lawrence after a corner, and Feeney tucked away his first from the spot. Shortly afterwards, a long pass out of defence allowed the Cardiff loan striker to outpace his marker and finish coolly past the home keeper. In amongst the many positives from today, a couple of notes of caution. It's looks to me that there's a communication problem between deVries and the defenders in front of him. On more than one occasion, simple balls through from their midfield resulted in chances or panicky clearances for corners when there should have been little danger of either. We also seem to have trouble defending the simple cross from deep that's nodded down into the path of a runner. This kind of build-up lead to us conceding a couple of good chances and the penalty. Scotland and Feeney didn't work at all well together today, although I don't think Thierry Henry would have looked dangerous with Scotland alongside him in this form. He was a passenger today, offering very little threat in front of goal, failing to hold the ball up, and incapable of linking play with a team-mate. Feeney, by contrast, made all the running, and hardly ever wasted posession. Our goal threat came predominantly from midfield, with Butler in particular keen to shoot at every opportunity. So there's still much work to do, but ultimately the league table makes for satisfactory reading tonight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bournemouth: Moss, Telfer, Cooper, Wilson, Pearce, Hollands, Anderton, Lallana, Kuffour (Gowling 73), Vokes, Bradbury. Subs Not Used: Stewart, Perrett, McQuoid, Newman. Goals: Bradbury 31 pen. Swansea: De Vries, Rangel, Lawrence, Monk, Painter, Butler, Pratley, Bodde, Anderson (Orlandi 89), Scotland (Allen 80), Feeney. Subs Not Used: Knight, Austin, O'Leary. Booked: Rangel, Anderson, Pratley. Goals: Bodde 15, Lawrence 28, Feeney 83 pen, 88. Att: 5,843. Ref: M Russell (St Albans).
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