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McClure Out/Hamer In
McClure Out/Hamer In
Sunday, 17th Dec 2000 00:00

McClure Out/Hamer In

The trouble is that Bournemouth have been on a great run and have now won their last 8 matches! After beating us in the FA cup they were confident that they would beat us again. Also the fact that we are so low in the division means that any team who is playing us will be thinking oh Swansea, they are crap so we should do them . How many times have you looked at the table to see how good the next opposition was and if they were near the bottom thought we will beat these cause they are sh te ? This is one of the reasons why it is so hard to get back up from near the bottom and the fact that we are sh te;-) The teams we play will have more confidence from the start because we have such bad recent form, it's a downhill spiral and is definitely Hollins greatest challenge ever. If he can get us out of this mess he will get more respect from the fans than he ever did by winning the 3rd division, but what chance does he have? I am of the opinion that the sacking of Hamer was the biggest mistake that McClure has ever made, he was a part of the formula for our success, he traveled with the team to every game and was there to motivate them before and during half time, he also had an excellent working relationship with Hollins. Since he has gone we seem to have lost something and looking at the before and after Hamer got sacked stats our form has gone downhill! Before = played: 7, won: 3, drew: 2, lost: 2, goals for: 7, goals against: 3, points 11. After = played: 13, won: 1, drew: 5, lost: 7, goals for: 12, goals against: 24, points 8. If our before form had continued (Hamer not got the boot) we might now have = played: 20, won: 9, drew: 6, lost: 5, goals for: 21, goals against: 9, points 33. Instead of = played: 20, won: 4, drew: 7, lost: 9, goals for: 19, goals against: 27, points 19. The main difference looks like our defence, we've let in 27 goals since Hamer went which is alarming to the extreme, I think that our team is actually better since Savarese and Romo have come in so this shows how dire the circumstances must be at the club because without them we would be doing even worse!!! At the time of Hamer getting the boot Dids was spot on when he wrote = [If this is true it is amazing. The people at the top of the club are a f king disaster and I think it will have serious repercussions. I said all along the Float was a con and that McClure is trying to jump ship, so here we go it's going to be a bumpy ride. Hamer all said and done was a jack even though he did bugger all. This may have been the last straw for him and he had to make a stand - we'll see. No Swansea personnel at the top now. Could be dangerous] Dids. --------------------------------------------------- I've always been a supporter of the board but after Hamer got the boot I don't now have the same look on McClure and Lewis, after all Hamer got the boot for just acting in the interest of the club by not wanting to sign the floatation papers. He was 100% right not to and McClure was 100% wrong to sack him, maybe I did think the board were good because Hamer was there and looking out for us, McClure and Lewis have gone downhill faster than the team since Hamer went and something needs to be done to save us from this mess. The only possibility could be to replace Lewis with someone else (someone a lot better) and bring Hamer back and McClure to stay out of his way (unless there is any chance that they could make up). With Hamer back he would be able to look out for a new owner for SCFC and have a better chance of finding one (which McClure wants). Is Hamer gone for good or not though? I don't think that Hamer will be brought back in by McClure , the rumor that he is trying to get a new owner/owners for the club looks like our only hope, McClure has said that if Hamer can find someone then he will sell. If Hamer can do the biz and save us then he will become a God to the fans, but he need's to sort it quick before things get any worse! As for Hollins, he does have the ability to get us back up there, it's the hardest job in his management career so far and would gain a lot of respect if he does it. The Cambridge and Bristol Rovers games showed that there is still hope, losing to Bournemouth was a bad result but to expect to win away games is not realistic. If we can get draws away and a few wins here and there and win most of our home games then we may survive. As for the game, we got there 25 minutes late and soon after Bournemouth had a penalty, I thought that it was a penalty myself but the other fans I talked to said that Roger went for the ball and even got his hand to it! I just saw the bloke fall over Freestone's arms and it did look like he took him out. It was a dodgy decision though and our players were gutted to go one down but they kept on trying to the end so it wasn't a case of giving up more like our confidence was a lot lower than Bournemouth's. I thought that we would come back and we made plenty of attacks but could not get through the Bournemouth defence, a few times we did have some good chances and if Savarese was playing we could well have drawn it. Boyd showed some of his usual skill at times but doesn't look anywhere near as good as he was getting last season, he isn't really match fit due to the injuries he's had and will improve but he needs to sort out his biggest problem, at times he just stands there when he should be going for everything. Is it laziness or just his style of play? Whatever it is he needs to sort it, also the 2 or 3 times when he got the ball in front of goal he tried to get past the defenders to get a clear shot when he should have just hit it first time. This seems like the way he plays but he should change and practice welting the ball with his first touch, he has the ability to do it and could score loads if he tried to do it. every time he tried to get past the defenders he would get closed down and they would get the ball off him or he would hit it into them. Roberts tried hard and looked likely to get something but just like all of our attempts down the wings, their defenders were well up for it, they did a lot of shirt pulling which the linesman could clearly see but never gave us anything for, I was gutted when Roberts was taken off and don't really know why he was. Romo was good and did some good passing, if he can improve we may start to do a lot better. Watkin played quite good and his passing too was good but he could not get through the Bournemouth's defence. Thomas really went for it, he did excellent and caused a lot of problems. Our biggest concern I thought was in the air, we won the ball loads of times but what's the point of winning it if you can't direct it to one of our own. The number of headers the we won but passed to Bournemouth's players was bad news. Overall at times we played some great football and strung some good passes together, we got the ball up and near goal a lot but Bournemouth were too good with their defence and made our chances few and far between. They had first class support and their fans sang well throughout, I would say that with Savarese on, a better ref and with better support from our fans we would have matched them. I definitely would not say that they were the better side, they were much more up for it and confident than us (especially after they had scored) but I think that at home we should have the advantage and should win that one. The biggest thing that I was gutted about was the lack of vocal/singing support from our supporters. After the penalty our players kept trying and looked likely to score but it was the Swans supporters who gave up, I don't remember one real well sung song, one effort was after they sang Bournemouth till I die and we started singing Swansea Till I die back but it wasn't too good, there was a few more half hearted attempts by us but they were crap. With all the talk about the team giving up and the lack of fighting spirit, what I saw was a gutted team who were at least trying to come back but what happened to us being the best singers etc, not yesterday, we were sh te, when Bournemouth gave us stick (your worse than Cardiff City etc) I expected the usual retaliation from us but there was nothing - our fans were silent and just looking at them. Sing when your winning or what. At Cambridge we sang full on at 3-0 down, do we need the Belgium's Swans supporters to get us going for that type of great support? It was a gutter to go 1-0 down but we should have still been singing as loud as possible, Bournemouth were going for it and I was humiliated because we were so quiet. All our fans were doing was shouting cheat, cheat, cheat nonstop whenever the player who was allegedly fouled by Freestone got the ball. When Thomas came on as a sub it was just a few people clapping, we had given up and our players put us to shame by the amount of effort they showed compared to the amount of effort our fans showed! After the Cambridge game where a lot of Belgiums came over and really got the Swans fans going (the Belgiums are nuts and always sing and jump up and down non stop), we were singing full force at 3-0 down and this got our team really worked up too. At the Bristol Rovers game we sang Johnny Hollins Barmy Army non stop for 20 odd minutes and the team responded, why were we so quiet at Bournemouth? To be honest I don't expect to win when we go away, this is the second division after all. I do expect the travelling Jacks to give our usual best vocal support though and was more disappointed at the lack of it at Bournemouth than the result. Sing if your winning, drawing or losing I say. I always slag off teams who come to the Vetch and if they are losing stop singing so I will slag our own fans off, it was PATHETIC!!! Swansea Jack (Winemaker, Nigel Saunders) http://www.swansea.till.i.die.connectfree.co.uk/home.htm mailto:swanseajack@connectfree.co.uk

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