Travelling to Swansea
I journey to Wales quite a lot but this my first visit to the new Liberty Stadium but on the drive down i relived a Sunday 17 years ago when i saw Albion play Swansea in the old Third Division play off semi final 1st leg at the famous old Vetch Field.........an atmospheric " toilet " of a football ground.
My mate who was a Swansea fan got me a ticket.............for the home end.... as i'd been unable to get one with our own brethren and i spent one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life watching Albion go two goals down and having to try to look happy at the same time so i wasn't sussed by the locals !
Standing with head bowed when Daryl Burgess scrambled our goal in a 1-2 loss yet wanting to jump for joy is a feeling i'll never forget.
A night of " boinging " in our 2-0 second leg victory is one of many Albion fan's best memories.
The Liberty Stadium
Very impressive i thought with a great viewing position and a stadium built for purpose and not ridiculously oversized for the fan base and i enjoyed the visit.
Albion's team selection.
Time to worry.....Tamas at right back and inexplicably ( once again ) Luke Moore upfront on his own,this brought a general feeling of despondency to those sat around me and i felt just the same...........what on Earth has Cox done wrong to get treated so shabbily in favour of our resident misfit !?
First Half
A total non event from an Albion perspective with Swansea keeping good possession without ever looking like they knew how to actually score a goal......luckily for us.
Tamas endured a nightmare time at right back with a couple of wild clearances reminiscing of a division 6 Sunday morning pub footballer and to a man the defence was panicky and shambolic with even Olsson enduring a torrid time in possession of the ball which culminated in the Swansea fans giving him the bird and screaming " hoof " every time he went to kick it.......the abuse clearly got to the big man.
Midfield was non effective with Dorrans struggling to make an impact and Mulumbu winning the ball and then giving it right back to our opponents with monotonous regularity.
Koren was the one bright spark as he worked hard and at least was willing to try to go past men...............Brunt was......well......well he was Brunt as usual,much arm waving and castigating of everyone but himself for a series of sloppy passes.
It would be easy to totally slate Luke Moore at this point but i refuse to waste your time in reading or my time in writing.........he was hopeless and pointless as ever as we played with ten men in effect.
News spreads that Forest are losing......come on Albion buck it up....we need to take advantage.
Second Half
A much better start.
Olsson being replaced by Zuiverloon immediately improved our balance and attacking threat and " The Loon " had his best 45 minutes in weeks in both halves of the pitch.
At around the hour mark Moore had a shot from a narrow angle ( yes,you read that right ! )
that the Swansea keeper made a fine save from as Albion upped the tempo with both Koren and Dorrans gaining big influence on the game as we drove them back.
It was apparent that if we got Moore off the pitch and got a goal scorer on that the game was there for the taking and thankfully Miller was soon blocking out the floodlights as he warmed his bulk along the touchline as a prelude to replacing Moore......hallelujah......only an hour late !
In a bold move Barnes replaced Brunt and straight away we looked more potent with extra pace,physical presence and most notably movement.......good intelligent movement.
Barnes attacked the box,squared up the fullback and went at him with pace before hitting the deck.
Penalty we cried..........i was certain but having seen it on Welsh TV today as i'm staying here on a short holiday it does look like a dive to be honest.
Up steps Dorrans and it's in off the post but perilously close to a miss as it rattled the inside of the post.
Swansea tried to get things going for themselves but in truth it was " huff and puff " and we didn't appear in danger and once Miller had danced around " Doris " the Swansea keeper and cooly planted it in the net for goal number two we could all relax.
Conclusion
A job well done in the end but we made it harder than it needed to be due to poor team selection again.
Tamas is not a right back and never will be and Luke Moore is a non footballer.........RDM has to get these " blind spots " out of his plan for The Albion.
Forest's loss now puts us in the Dingles position of a few years ago in that we need to completely fall apart now if promotion is not to be realised.
A note of caution however in terms of what awaits us next season if we do make it up to the Prem again............our first half performance was yet again of a standard hardly befitting a team in the lower reaches of our present division and heavy investment will be required to solidify our defence.
Well done to all 1000 who travelled and out sung the Welsh......always nice to beat them at their national sport !