The Swans showed the strains of their long season today with a poor performance at home that saw them held by Crystal Palace and Chico Flores sent off as well. A poor afternoon at the Liberty but I guess it is one point closer to safety.

I suspect that most Swans fans went into today's game with confidence high following three great performances in a week against Napoli (twice) and Liverpool but that confidence did not take long to get undone despite a first half where we could count 83% possession but very little end product - almost a throwback to the Laudrup days?

That of course is an unfair assessment of a side that has been tested so heavily in the last three games but this was against a Palace side that for 45 minutes were completely woeful and looked so far out of their depth that there was almost a temptation to throw them a lifebelt rather than offer them the ball to play with.

I do appreciate that the statement does sound a little strange after we were almost holding on at the end of the game but make no mistake the performance by Palace in the first half for me was the worst seen at the Liberty this season by some distance. The Swans even on the rare occasion when they did concede possession during that half soon grabbed it back and were trying to launch another attack against a side that time wasted from as early as the 12th minute and had eleven men behind the ball for such long periods.

The fact that it was only Jonathan De Guzman's goal that separated the team at half time said much for the frustration of the Swans performance than the strong defending of Palace as they struggled to put together any form of killer pass to break through a side that was clearly set up to play for a point today.

De Guzman's goal though was a definite thing of beauty in the half as he finished off a slick passing move to slide the ball past Speroni and into the net for the opening goal that we hoped would be enough to spark the performance into life and generate the result that we so desperately wanted on the day.

It wasn't to be though as the Swans were disjointed for much of the game but went into the interval with that one goal advantage and definitely the better of the two teams during the first 45 minutes.

That all though changed in the half as they looked tired and were far too sloppy for much of the second period and giving the ball away with far too much ease which let Palace into a game that they shouldn't have been anywhere near.

Bolasie was getting the better of Ben time and time again and causing us endless problems on the right hand side of the Palace attack and with ashley Williams suffering from a virus the Swans performance was becoming more and more desperate and you always felt that Palace were about to come back into it.

Williams and Bony had departed to be replaced by Amat and Lita by the time the equaliser came with less than 10 minutes of the game to run. It was hesitation in the Swans defence again that saw Chico bring down Murray after he beat Vorm to a loose ball. Mike Dean pointed to the spot and Chico just had to see red at that point the moment the penalty was given.

Murray himself dusted himself down and despatched the penalty with ease to draw Palace level and give them a point that they deserved although it was definitely points thrown away from the Swans with a poor performance.

The two weeks break we will now have is probably needed and deserved but there is still work to be done to secure the points that we need between now and the end of the season, which we will get. Believe.

Photo: Action Images

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