As the ninety plus minutes unfolded yesterday at the swansea.com stadium we saw every facet laid bare in front of the watching crowd as Swansea City collapsed dramatically. Psychologically this really was a huge blow to Swansea head coach Russell Martin after the stress of a football week involving every layer of the west Wales club.
The way the goals were conceded by a defence entrusted with the strategy of a young manager who witnessed his side outwitted once again was nothing short of embarrassing. As it is today the patience of the faithful is wearing thin, not least in some cases it has now worn out. Those that belittled Martin’s tactics over a far longer period of time will feel justified that this loss displayed what they are saying and have been saying all along.
In some cases the delight that Swansea City lost this game was all too evident.
The way to play football will never work at Swansea City, it is too far removed from the skill set and application of the players Martin has available. The defensive mindset is shattered and the reliance on these particular participants to remain awake to danger throughout a game rarely occurs. That’s what Martin’s opposers will tell you, and the more it happens the more furious is their excited clapping.
The work of the Swans to get ahead in to a 3-2 lead was at times incredibly impressive, a fully confident Joel Piroe scoring Joel Piroe goals, the first a cleverly carved out effort, the second seizing on the ineptitude of keeper Ruddy after the away side had drawn level. It isn’t so much that the Swans were good value for the win they didn’t achieve, they sit now in thirteenth with the best goal difference of any team beneath them. It’s the fact that the three points on offer would have seen them rise the table and be just two points from the play off places.
The plain fact is that it is due to the decision making regards substitutions yesterday by Russell Martin that did contribute to the defeat. It was a gamble to make three substitutions and not have any further ability to do so which led to disarray when Joel Latibeaudiere left the field. That luck that Martin wanted wasn’t there, in fact his luck is pretty much out when it comes to moments in games that would normally be run of the mill.
At the end of a week that has seen Russell Martin thrown to the wolves in the press with the inaction of one man in particular, chief decision maker Jason Levien in the USA, this was the last thing he or any real Swans fan would want. The screams of ‘get out of our club’ echoed around the stadium yesterday, but sadly little thought is being given to any valid replacement. They may as well be as empty as the words we heard last week from Jason Levien and Jake Silverstein. The amount of email contact, messages and calls we have received this week, especially since Thursday - and more surprisingly from who is the biggest thing we take away from a very disappointing start to the year.
Despite this weekends defeat and the way it came about there is still a lot of support for the Swansea City head coach. Not least from those who have more influence where it matters, especially the way things are going at the football club. It’s as if a stun grenade has been thrown in to a room of people who are still trying to retain their hearing as another explosion occurs. That initial silence shattered and accompanied with a blinding flash of light so bright it hurts. For us that best sums up this current experience, be that off the field and the evasiveness we have experienced this week or on the field of play as we saw yesterday.
It is a mess.
The only people who can change this around are the coaches at the club under the guidance of Russell Martin. And the only people who can show their support for him are the ones who can ‘zoom’ in and out of thousands of fans lives as they did last week. Both look improbable today, in fact after the disastrous decision to not recruit a goalkeeper when it was more than possible in January that could become the real issue for the rest of the season. That one money saving decision will almost certainly return to haunt the club if yesterdays performance from Andrew Fisher is anything to go by. Of course it isn’t just about him, the replacements yesterday in the second half against Birmingham City were as much to blame as was the decision to bring them on to the pitch.
Nobody comes out of this with any honours, even the delighted who will revel in the short term from this loss. They have to remember they are bearing witness to a football club that will only hold its own in a league where they could do so much better. If that delights them then so be it. In amongst all this there is a club off the pitch which has an administration at the helm of an ever changing chameleon. All things the majority of fans cannot effect at all. However, we return to those cries of discontent referred to earlier, they may have no focus today or indeed as time moves forward. But they will do, and maybe this time we will see the action shouted for by the many. Everyone knows the risks associated to a more direct approach to matters at Swansea City, and what that brings as an aside. The current decision makers are playing with a smoking fire as they sit comfortably prodding it cautiously from thousands of miles away.
And as long as they do so, safe from any dissent or confrontation things will very slowly escalate but that fire won’t stop smouldering. Losing games of football as the Swans did yesterday won’t help at all, in fact it helps nobody. This was clearly illustrated when this website participated on the Radio Wales phone in post match yesterday evening, the owners need to face up and resolve the damage they have done of late.
Because as it stands the silence from them like that stun grenade is deafening.
Swansea City: Fisher; 4 Latibeaudiere, 5 Cabango, 5 Wood, 4 Manning; 6 Grimes (C) 6, Fulton, 8 Ntcham 6 (Cundle 64), Cooper 6; Piroe 9 (Darling 77), Cullen 7 (Whittaker 69).
Subs not used: Webb, Naughton, Congreve, Cotterill.
Goals: Piroe 23 & 58, Cullen 29
Yellow card: 🟨 Fisher 14
Birmingham City: Ruddy (C); Sanderson, Long, Trusty; Bielik (Jutkiewicz 77); Colin, Gardner (Hannibal 46), Chong, Friend (Bacuna 46); Khadra (Longelo 58), Hogan.
Subs not used: Etheridge, Chang, James.
Goals: Hogan 14, Chong 55, Jutkiewicz 90, Trusty 90+7
Attendance: 17,247
Referee: Jeremy Simpson 4/10 : Awarded a penalty where there wasn’t one.