[Archived] Swansea v Rovers Preview

[colin]

Croeso

On 14th April we play Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Abertawe

The last time we played them was on 3rd December when we won 4-2 at Ewood in the pouring rain & The Yak scored all four.He was boo-ed by Ewood for high-fiving Coco after the first goal.

That was in the middle of a miserable run for us when we had won just one of our games from the start of the season. We had lost seven, drawn four and won just one: that win was the abberation against Arsenal.

After that we lost another four, drew one and had another abberation by winning at The Theatre Of Merchandising. An abberation is of course completely different from"abhoration". More like "abnormal" really. One of Stuart Maconie's wonderfully whimisal books describes our 1995 League win as an "abberation." I was all annoyed until I actually looked it up in my dictionary of big words.

(just checking like, you know that - abberration is different from abhoration.)

Now we play them at The Liberty Stadium. Don't expect such a good result as Swansea have only lost 4 out of their 15 games there this season, there's some hope for us as Swansea have lost their past two games 0-2 against Everton & Newcastle. No doubt we can set them back on their winning ways PDQ. And to plaguerise D4ELife's comment on his Liverpool preview "I would never predict us to win with the walking-disaster that is Steve Kean in charge of things."

Brendan Rogers, Swansea's manager is, perhaps rightly, being hailed as some kind of footballing genius and the press isgenerally hailing him for Swansea's "pass & go" style. A sort of Welsh Barcelona. Apart from Lionel Messi. And a few others.

Total digression. Take 15 minutes off and have a look at this: Messi

He's a bit like Simon Garner, but without the fags. And maybe something else. Possibly. Could Messi do it on a wet night in December at Ewood? Like me joining the British synchonised

swimming team at the 2012 Olympics, we shall never know. Isn't that just a struggle with the art of the possible? Such is the uncertanty of life.

Brendan Rogers has recently been linked with the vacant manager's job at Chelsea. "I am trying to build my career and not destroy it." he said. Ha ha ha! Nice one Brendan.

His playing career was limited to a few games with Ballymena United in Northern Ireland, then he tranferred to Reading where he play no games before "retiring" from playing.

He then had a spell at Chelsea under "The Special One" followed by an uneventful year managing at Watford then another at Reading. So, like Jose, he is carving out a decent career as a manager without actually having any success as a player. This is despite the "received wisdom" that a decent manager should have experiance as a player. Rather like the old saw that referees should be time-served players, both of course are utter tummy-rubbish.

OK, trivia time. We all like trivia don't we?

(1)Now here's something that we can all get all dewy-eyed about.

In 1996 Swansea was relegated to the old fourth Division. That season it was managed by four people. One of them, Kevin Cullis, had been appointed by a consortium wishing to buy the club. Cullis' previous experiance had been with non-league Midlands club, Cradley Town's youth team.During his short-lived reign, his evident lack of ability led to senior players Christian Edwards and Dave Penney ejecting Cullis from the dressing room during half time and giving the team talk

themselves in a 4–0 defeat to Blackpool, which proved to be his second and last game in charge.

Chris Samba & Ryan Nelsen, where where you when we needed you to drag Coco out by his heels, take him behind The Riverside and dump him in the River Darwen?

(2) Thierry Henry has failed to score against only one Premiership Club. It's not us. It was on 15th January 2012. To be fair, he only got one go at them.

(3) In the 1999-2000 season Swansea striker Walter Boyd set an unwanted record of being the fastest substitute ever sent off, when he was red-carded for striking a Darlington player seconds after being brought on and before play had resumed, therefore being officially recorded as zero seconds. Nice one Walter!

(4) Swansea City's nickname is commonly understood to be "The Swans," but they are also known (historically) as "The Jacks." More on this load of bo11ocks can be found here on this doggy woof-woof page on the internet here

(5) In 1914-15 Swansea became the first Welsh side to reach the First Round of the FA Cup. Rovers were the first First Division side to the visit Vetch Field* for a competitive game in the FA Cup – Rovers were then the Champions of England, but Swansea Town from the Second Division of the Southern League beat us 1–0 at Vetch Field. While Rovers' penalty taker Bradshaw** missed a penalty. There is little remarkable about that, but before the game Bradshaw had scored with thirty-six consecutive spot kicks.

Even more remarkable when Swans/Jacks played most of the second half with ten men and the final fifteen minutes with just ninemen as two players were forced to retire through injury.

* For younger readers, Swansea played at The Vetch Field from 1912 to 2005. If you have even more time on your hands have a look at the history of vetch

**That'll be Billy Bradshaw (cracking name, obviously not some kind of southern git called Tarquin or Gideon) who we got from Accy Stanley in 1903. He played 386 games for us until 1920 and then moved on to Rochdale. Mike Jackman's book "The Essential History Of Blackburn Rovers" says that he scored 36 goals for us, so it looks like all of them were from the penalty spot. Bloody waster.

And as the penultimate paragraph: Football shops & shops associated with football clubs are well known for selling stuff at overblown prices. Check these two over-priced whisky at £26.38 for just 35cl that's £52.72 for a bog standard 70 cl bottle of spirits. Blimey!

& Pencil case horror

£13 for pencil case. Pencil case? £13. They're taking the pi55. When I was a lad...blah ...blah...lucky to have a pencil...we used to have to scrawl on a slate with a bit of damp chalk

Following the penultime paragraph comes the ultimate paragraph. It's not really a paragraph, so forgive me this gramatical error. But for anyone travelling down to Swansea this link may be useful Liberty Stadium

Cofion cynnes.

Thank you & goodnight

Colin

[m1st]

Dwlch am fawr, Colin boyo! Your usual blend of erudition, wit and preview.

I remember coming back up the M5/M6 from the last game of the 1980/81 season with my dad and one of my mates. We'd beaten Bristol Rovers and needed Knob End to beat Swansea so that we [and not Swansea] could get the third automatic promotion place for which we were vieing in those pre-playoff days. Of course, PNE lost so we missed out on goal difference.

Even though we'd have been the same if the results had gone the other way, the triumphalism of their fans in the coaches on the opposite carriageway of the Motorway was difficult to take - I've never properly forgiven them for that 30 years on!

I can't see us being any happier this weekend. I think they'll pass us to death and beat us 2-0. Hope & pray I'm wrong, though!

[philipl]

Brilliant preview Colin. Will have something to smile about after the inevitable Coco-inflicted defeat.

[Waggy76]

I was going to go to this game , but I was so disgusted with the Bolton debacle and results since , I have changed my mind (it would have been my 76th ground)

But funnily enough this is one game I think is winnable. .

Swansea , have over achieved big style and recently been sussed out, also they have not a prolific forward line ...

A lot will depend on Hoilett and the Yak ...Swansea remind me of a poor mans Arsenal , can pass well but no plan B and can certainly be got at !!!

[Doug]

Yaki da! Great review Colin. Anybody going to this must be aware that most Tafs have been trained in 'llap-goch' (see Monty Python Paperbok), the secret Welsh art of self defence that requires no intelligence, strength or physical courage. If somebody could please post it on here as I have no idea how to, (just type in LLap-Goch in search engine).

I hope we can get something from this game, I can actually see a 0-0 draw.

[1864roverite]

Quality read Colin.

I think Rovers will take a hammering again. If we can concede 2 shockers v Bolton. 3 even worse at WBA then Swansea will score several sublime goals without a whimper of response.

3-0 Swansea

KEAN OUT

[Amo]

Smashing read, Col. I think I've learned something from it... I'll let you know when I figure out what.

As for the game, I think we'll be okay so long as we extrapolate the 80mins against Man. Utd for the full 90. Piece of p!ss this management lark.

[John]

As for the game, I think we'll be okay so long as we extrapolate the 80mins against Man. Utd for the full 90. Piece of p!ss this management lark.

Don't forget the 20 mins against West Brom too, when we were sublime.

[sw0808]

Great review = Thanks

The 14mins of Messi magic was the highlight (goals 19 and 99 - wow)

[roverandout]

swansea 2 rovers 0 and another nail in rovers' coffin!!!

[waggy]

venksters promised us european football saturday we have it

[Ricky]

I'll be there with 11 others for a friends stag do. Weekend in Cardiff was the plan but managed to convince them that a little trip to Swansea would be a good idea

[alexanders]

We can win this. If it is something we are good at its counter-attacks and this match might give us that.

We won 3-1 at home. We can sneak a win!

[Neil Weaver]

We can win this. If it is something we are good at its counter-attacks and this match might give us that.

We won 3-1 at home. We can sneak a win!

Errr, I'm going to p!ss on your chips Alexanders. It was 4-2 so I'll take the rest of your post with the same dose of reality!

[alexanders]

My apologies. You are absolutely right. I still think we can sneak a shock win though.

[Presty On Tour]

I'll be there with 11 others for a friends stag do. Weekend in Cardiff was the plan but managed to convince them that a little trip to Swansea would be a good idea

Was out in Swansea for the bank holiday weekend, can't go wrong with the Wind St strip and much better than Cardiff imo.

As for the game, I think we need to be physical and the Yak has to boss their defence again to Stand a chance. If we stand off, we won't have a kick and they will play right through us.

For those who made the trip in the summer of 2005, you would remember we have already played Swansea at the Liberty in a pre-season friendly and won 4-0. We only had a few hundred but it was a great day.

As for pre-match drinks, unfortunately there is no designated away fans pub. Outside the ground there is a Harvester and a F&B's which welcome away fans to mix and drink with the locals but it does get jam packed on match days. There is also easy access to plenty of buses to and from the town centre if you wanted to venture there for a large selection of bars, pubs and ales.

See you there, COYB!

[roverandout]

sorry alex, dont know where your optimism comes from, they have beaten the likes of arsenal and a few other big clubs there, newcastle had a world class striker to win them the game on friday, we have none, yakubu is hit and miss at the moment, more miss, they will play us off the park, eleven 100%ers against our mob!!!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

2-1 Swans.

The Championship takes us by the hand and says welcome back 'owd Rover

[AggyBlue]

This is a really tough game, the Swans home record is very good. I can't see anything other than a defeat for us.

[yellowsubmarine]

Ewood Park and the dressing room need to play this inspirational speech video by Al Pacino EVERY home game from now on.

We need to wake up and start fighting NOW!

[purplegrover]

Smashing post as usual Colin.

Nice to raise a smile in these dark and gloomy times. Many thanks.

[DE.]

Great preview Colin!

After defeat to Liverpool I fear we're just waiting for the inevitable to happen now. What was left of our players confidence would have been well and truly knocked out of them last night. I don't think any positive words from Kean can hide the fact that as a team and as individuals they are not good enough, and I think they know this.

Swansea possess superior players, a superior style of play and a superior manager. Brendan Rogers will see this as one of the easiest games in their run in to pick up points from as other than Wolves we're the most pathetic team in the division. Wigan may be below us now but between us and them I'm pretty sure almost every Premier League team would vote to face us if they needed a win.

Swansea's players are patient in possession, can pass and move, can score goals when required and have a great record at the Liberty Stadium. Alternatively, we're a static team with no creativity and no quality, nor can we play the percentage or long ball game effectively. We can effectively do nothing well and I would fully expect Swansea to put us in our place, regardless of the result against QPR tonight.

Swansea 3-0 Rovers

Kean to come out afterwards and say "there's no way we'll go down" followed by "we're already looking forward to challenging in the top four and getting into the champions league next season".

[Bobby G]

People who have been so optimistic till now always saying its not lose games or 1 point would be good, here we are. Anything less than 3 points and its relegation surely and mission accomplished for the House of Chickens.

[Kamy100]

I can see Swansea beating us fairly easily.

Mentally it'll be hard for the players to recover from last night. Defensively we are a total mess, Swamsea's superior passing and movement will expose our weaknesses. Newcastle beat them last week because they are very well organised side who were able to soak up the pressure and hit them on the break, unfortunately we don't have that level of defensive organisation.

[Bobby G]

Here's a thought. We can start to help the defence A LITTLE by playing our BEST defenders!