Southend - Fan's Views
Saturday, 19th Oct 2002 00:00

Swansea 1 Southend 0 - The Fan's Views

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Report by Phil Sumbler

Some results are a long time coming and five minutes stoppage time that turned into eight did not help this one but finally Swansea recorded their second league victory of the season against Southend but it took a penalty for it to happen!!!

But with our league position at the start of the day unable to get any worse, I don't really care whether it took a penalty, and own goal or a deflected shot off a hovering seagull it was the three points that mattered most.

Brian Flynn elected to go into this match without the much criticised Steve Watkin, instead preferring Jonathan Keaveny up front with Thomas and Brian Cash was bought in for his debut instead of Damien Lacey in midfield. De Vulgt filled in for the injured Terry Evans in front of what now seems a normal Vetch crowd of 3600.

Swansea seemed to start bright enough and the debut making Cash showed what he was capable of with his first touch. Although the run that he made came to nothing it was nice to see a player who, designated as a winger, remembers that the role involves taking people on and trying to the byline. Although not outstanding on his debut it was a promising start and I am sure that there is more in this tank for us to see over the next month or two.

Swansea's efforts in the first half were restricted to long range efforts from Reid and Mumford whilst Southend were faring little better with Whelan and Smith coming close. Whelan did manage to get the ball into the net during that first half but clearly using his fist to make the telling touch and he was quite correctly booked by the referee for deliberate handball.

A half-time score of 0-0 was fair reflection on a game that was not pleasing to watch at times and played very much by two sides who looked as if they were struggling for confidence.

Flynn reacted to the first half by changing Williams for Keaveny at the interval in a bid to try and force our first win since August. And seven minutes into the second half we took the lead. A bobbling ball in the area fell at the feet of Lee Jenkins who fell as he was about to strike with the referee judging it as a foul by Beard and he pointed to the spot. A yellow card followed, when many of the home fans were calling for red and after a two minute delay, Thomas stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way and put Swansea into the lead. Noticeable that it is now also 8 weeks since a different Swansea player found the net in the league - another statistic that would worry even more if we were to lose Thomas for any reason.

Thomas' goal signalled 40 minutes of nerves for the Swansea crowd and although Southend saw plenty of the ball during this period they never really threatened the equalisier as the game became littered with free kicks and badly placed passes. In fact, the busiest member of the Swansea staff seemed to be Richie Evans who must have come onto the pitch 5 or 6 times during the 90 minutes including once to treat Leigh De Vulgt who was stretchered off with comcussion.

The requirements of both physios so often led to five minutes of injury time at the end of the game, which turned into eight but for once Swansea protected their lead and relief greeted the final whistle which was turned into cheers when the news that Cardiff City had lost as well. Personally, they could have won for all I cared - we had three points in the bag and now go to Carlisle next Saturday for the battle of the bottom two.

Not a vintage game by any stretch of the imagination but the result was the most important thing and now it is up to Flynn to get the players to build on it. My man of the match? I'll go for James Thomas purely because he kept his nerve when it mattered.

Onwards and upwards anyone?

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