Wilfried Bony's red card cost the Swans this afternoon their perfect home record as a late Southampton goal was enough to give the visitors the three points they deserved despite a good rearguard Swans effort.
Bony saw red in the first half for two bookable offences which effectively ended the game as the even contest it was threatening to be at that time as two of the division's form teams went head to head at the Liberty Stadium.
The crowd showed their displeasure to the referee but it was difficult to argue against yellow card on an afternoon we looked to him to break his goal duck for the season but he never stepped up to the mark. Watch the first yellow and it is reasonably clear that Wilf only had eyes to take out the defender in the challenge and the second one was just plain stupid when you are already on a card and there should have been no surprise at all to see a second yellow being waved in the air. Wilf may have looked completely perplexed by what had happened but surely he can't have been surprised to see the second card being waved and the way he walked off the pitch should have been hi thinking he had badly let down his team mates rather than any disbelief over what had just happened.
The disappointing thing at that time was we were just getting ourselves on top in the game having rattled the bar with a shot from Routledge after a typically good move and Bony himself having a header cleared off the line from a Gylfi corner as we threatened to take the lead in what was proving to be an entertaining encounter
To me it was reasonably clear that the two sides were evenly matched and I think we could have gone on and taken the win at that point although Wilf's actions will never give us the chance to test that theory as we had to reorganise with Gylfi up front alone and we spent much of the second half on the back foot and the game was effectively a contest as to whether we could hold Southampton out with maybe even the chance of hitting them on the breakaway.
The answer to both those teasers turned out to be a no as the Saints got their goal with just over ten minutes remaining after a shot gave Fabianski no chance to keep his third clean sheet of the season and the Swans were beaten for the second week running,
So we take a result like this and we look for the positives. And there are some for me. We defended well until the goal and never really let Southampton have a chance at goal until that crucial moment and that backs up some of the steel that we have seen in the side this season. I would also say - and mentioned it before - that we were the better side until the red card and I truly believe we would have gone onto win the game had it remained eleven against eleven.
The downside as well of Wilf's red is that it neutralised any threat that Dyer or Routs could offer and with Roy Hodgson finally having made it to the Liberty Stadium it could not have happened on a worse afternoon for them as individuals. '
We were beaten again but we can take the positives and we have to focus on those bits ahead of next week's trip to Sunderland where we know we are capable of winning.