Jason Scotland scored twice - the second in the last minute of stoppage time - to earn the Swans a point at the Liberty

I suspect as the Liberty clocked ticked past sixty minutes there was not too many Swansea City fans who would have believed the side had one goal in them let alone two as Barnsley celebrated their two goal advantage.

The Swans up to that point had been disjointed (woeful) and seemingly unable to string a series of passes together after spurning some decent opportunities in the early stages of the game.

Then Martinez introduced Joe Allen for the hugely disappointing Owain Tudur Jones and the game changed.  Jason Scotland was like a man possessed and deserved his two goals probably more than any other double in his career and the Swans laid siege to the Barnsley goal as they looked to secure a bare minimum point from the game.

It was strange for that first hour to see the Swans surrender possession so easily and it was frustrating to watch.  Barnsley slowly gained in confidence and whilst their first goal wasn't against the run of play the pathetic handball that the referee saw fit to award the penalty for was just another one of a series of very strange decisions.  Especially when he totally ignored a blatant attempt by a Barnsley player to get a red card for Rangel with play acting.  Not the only play acting that he deemed suitable for the match.

The Swans lined up as follows

Dorus

Rangel     Monk     Williams     O'Hallorhan

Gower     Britton     OTJ     Gomez     Butler

Scotland

Britton and Tudur Jones both had chances in the first five minutes.  And whilst Britton's was blocked (with some pain) by a defender's face, Tudur Jones inexplicably missed his from six yards when totally unmarked.   Quite how he pulled the shot high and wide remains a mystery that even Mulder and Scully would have trouble explaining.

That was almost as good as it got first half though as the Swans struggled to gain any realy pressure on the Barnsley defence and the visitors were constantly looking the more dangerous.   De Vries pulled off a couple of superb saves to keep them at bay and maybe a goalless first half was as good as we could have hoped for given the pattern of the first half.

Pintado had replaced a presumably injured Mark Gower before the clock ticked past half hour and the Swans went 4-4-2 with Gomez moving to the right hand side as Gorka joined Scotland up front.

The second half started badly for the Swans.   Williams was outpaced by the Barnsley attacker and despite another good save from Dorus the ball fell to Macken who slotted home into an empty net to give the visitors the lead.

If that was bad, things were about to get worse.  O'Hallorhan lost possession and it resulted in a Barnsley corner.   As the ball was floated in the referee blew and awarded a handball I think against Monk but in truth it was hard to know who it was against.   In the disputes, Monk was booked and Rangel had to haul a cheating Barnsley player off the floor as he held his face - presumably in protection against frost bite as nobody else had touched him.

Campbell-Ryce converted the penalty and Barnsley's lead had been doubled with the Swans in all sorts of trouble.

And then the sub that was to change the game.  Tudur Jones left to some cheering from the Swans support and Joe Allen came on to sit alongside Leon in the midfield.

Within ten minutes the Swans had pulled one back with a sublime finish from Scotland from twenty yards giving the Barnsley keeper no chance and that was the moment the Swans remembered how to play football.

Joe Allen was instrumental in everything the Swans did that was good as in fairness was Jason Scotland.  Rangel and O'Hallorhan were in the attack at every opportunity and the Swans pressed and pressed.   They passed up some good chances and it looked as the fourth official held up four minutes that the goal would never come.

That was until Scotland's late intervention and a low shot that hit the corner of the net to send the Swans fans home happy having salvaged a point.

Four draws on the trot is potentially not what we felt we would get from the last four games but at the same time tonight showed a fighting spirit that waspleasing to see and from two goals down this can definitely be classed as a point won come the end of the night.

Photo: Action Images

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