Swansea City : Clinical Cullen Cleverly Culls Coventry

Liam Cullen, the Swansea marmite man struck deep in to injury time to secure a point for his team in an improvement on recent performances. Having said that the second half wasn’t a good watch overall as the Swans lived dangerously.

The Swansea squad has been struck down with sickness and illness hence Jamie Paterson being subbed at half time and Joe Allen coming on in the second half. Mykola reported sick which hampered Alan Sheehan’s plans for this game.

As news circulated on Eric Ramsey, Luke Williams and the vacant head coach role at Swansea it was Championship business as usual for the Swans. They had another great start when Liam Walsh struck home a shot on seven minutes after a defensive error in the home sides area. Unfortunately the Swans again couldn’t stabilise and get themselves in order to press on, and only three minutes later the Sky Blues were level. Haji Wright was clinical and available to equalise and again the Swans defence looked dodgy under pressure. However, it did start what was a decent first half of football with both sides trying to penetrate and get the lead.

Liam Walsh ( below ) sailed through some hefty tackles throughout his time on the pitch, and when he exited in the second half he looked pretty good on it. For the Indy he was man of the match. Coventry captain, Sheaf tried it first, and Kasey Palmer spent most of the night looking for it as well. If Palmer spent more time trying to be a footballer and left his ‘other methods in the dressing room he would most certainly be a better player.

Everyone who watches Swansea City closely will know they have given up nineteen points from winning positions this season, the worst record in the Championship. And possibly when Coventry went ahead in the second half it was expected. A deep cross was met by Wright who headed towards goal only to have his second of the night poached by substitute Ellis Simms who touched it home. The cross exposed more frailty in the Swans defence with Harry Darling left with two forwards to attend to and Ben Cabango left wanting to assist his team mate. It was deserved for the home side to be ahead, they played with far more intensity in the second half and the Swans at times were hanging on.

Jamal Lowe missed a pretty decent chance which he really should have scored from. Young Sam Parker crossing superbly but Lowe couldn’t respond. The good news on the night was the aforementioned Parker making his first full debut for the Swans. The seventeen year old Cardiff born right sided player looked at home and confident to take on players. You would think now with some first team experience the Wales set up will be interested ? They have overplayed a poor Rubin Colwill over the last two years, so why not ?

It has to be said that the Swansea support at Coventry last night was superb. Around 1,400 behind the goal were on form all night. From my position the Jack Army were loud indeed. They also didn’t hold back when it came to the club and its current administration.

Alan Sheehan was furious at both of Coventry City’s goals in this game, the first he believed was offside, and a close look does seem to confirm this. Although on monitors. They can be deceptive. Sheehan : "I feel hard done by with the goals we conceded. Referee decisions, I expect apologies, we've already kind of had one. The first goal is offside by quite a margin, and the second goal I believe is a foul on Matt Grimes. That being said, all the chips down, they kept going until the end. I'm so proud of them tonight for sticking together."

Next up is West Bromwich Albion at the Swansea.Com on New Years Day.

Thanks to WhoScored for permission to reproduce their statistics.

⚽️ Coventry City: Collins; Latibeaudiere, Thomas, Binks, Dasilva, Allen (van Ewijk 60), Sheaf (c), Palmer (O'Hare 60), Sakamoto, Wright, Godden (Simms 60)

Subs: Wilson, McFadzean, Bidwell, Ayari, Eccles, Tavares

⚽️ Swansea City: Rushworth; 6 Humphreys, 6 Cabango, 6 Darling, 6 Tymon; 6 Fulton 6 (Cullen 75), 6 Grimes (c); 7 Parker 7 (Allen 75), 6 Paterson 5 (Lowe 46), 5 Walsh 8 (Patino 82); 5 Bolasie 4 (Yates 64) 4

Subs: Fisher, Kuharevich, Pedersen, Wood, Naughton

Goals: Liam Walsh 7’, Haji Wright 10’, Ellis Simms 65’, Liam Cullen 92

Yellows: Luis Binks, Liam Walsh, Matt Grimes, Josh Tymon, Jamal Lowe

Att: 25,807
Away : 1,373
Strange away stat. Cash on the day clearly not included.

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