This Friday see’s the Swans and Sky Blues face off against each other in the Sky Bet Championship. It’s a 3pm kick off this Good Friday and the remarkable statistic is that in the last fourteen meetings Swansea have either won or drawn against Coventry City. In fact it was fifteen games ago that Coventry last beat the Swans.
The meeting between the clubs earlier this season brought more Swans drama to a large travelling Jack Army midweek at the Coventry Building Society Arena. Three goals in sixteen minutes by the Swans pulled back a 3-0 deficit in the second half. It has to be said the Swans could have easily won the game in the last seven minutes or so.
That game was another example of how much the season has gone from highs to lows in one of the most inconsistent seasons Swansea fans have witnessed for some time. That has split the support massively online but it’s clear the travelling support at least hold Russell Martin closer to their hearts. With two wins from the last two tough games this is the real test for Martin, he really does now need to display his credentials as a manager / coach who can now display his own personal development via his teams results.
The worrying stat of course is goals conceded and indeed Martin’s win rate which stands at thirty five and a half percent. Over his ninety two games in charge he has a minus thirteen goal deficit and this years results bar the last two have been frustrating and at times annoying. The flowing football he desires is there at times, but as we saw in the second half at Cardiff his charges can go in to dreamland and resist the obvious openings to really kill off games. Martin talks of bravery, but it was only that second Cardiff goal that jolted them in to a more positive frame of mind that won the game.
Goals haven’t really been an issue this season, we’ve seen some cracking Swansea goals, but the defence has been an issue though, however some are seeing Ben Cabango, Harry Darling and Nathan Wood very slowly display some sort of understanding. Regardless, we do now need to see more momentum and some real proof this system can work as well as Martin believes.
It was October 1981 (above) that the Sky Blues last beat the Swans back in the old first division. At that time the Swans were top of the league. That 3-1 loss knocked them off the top as league leaders. That was back in the days of Curt and Rajkovic (below), Leighton, Latchford, Jeremy and Robbie. Yes, that was a football team, only rivalled by the Laudrup era.
For this record to be continued we need to see a lot more than we did in the second half on Saturday, and more like the composure during the opening thirty minutes when the Swans tore the Bluebirds apart. A win wouldn’t make much of an impact on the season, unless of course it inspires a record run of victories to finish the season off. That’s highly unlikely, the fine margins Martin brings to games won’t allow for that at this time.
But I suppose we can hope.