Swansea City set out on a journey of two home games over four days this coming Saturday and then Tuesday evening. Saturday brings Bristol City (12:30pm) and Tuesday, Preston North End (7:45pm) Both games are winnable of course but will prove a lot harder than the two against Portsmouth and Oxford United.
Those were crucial for relegation reasons, win these two and there will be more talk about a play off push. Bristol City drew at home 2-2 with Wrexham last night in a tense game, this fixture will be as hard as any the Swans have faced since the arrival of head coach, Vitor Matos. That being said we all know that the Swans will be on the front foot and most certainly will create more than enough chances to win the game. Marko Stamenić is out for both of these games after reaching ten yellow cards for the season. There is no way he can feature. Fans are clamouring for a more forward thinking midfield, Gonçalo Franco, Melker Widell and Malick Yalcouyé may well be disappointed. However, there can still be an attacking flavour if Gustavo Nunes starts in place of either Ronald or Eom. He can operate on both wings. We expect Ethan Galbraith to be deployed at right back as that now seems to be a constant despite Josh Key looking a lot better of late.
Bristol City have very much an equal last ten games record with Swansea City. The Swans two points ahead of them but it does reinforce how well Swansea have played at home. The Swans have won five of their games in that ten match period with one draw and four losses. Bristol City have won four, lost four and drawn two. As stated there is very little in it.
The last time the sides met was at Ashton Gate the week Alan Sheehan was sacked as Swans head coach on November 11th. That game was taken by Darren O’Dea who knew he too was on his way. It was a muddled and incomplete performance which the Swans lost 3-0. It was a real sign of where the Swans were at that time both competitively and organisationally. It ranks up there with one of the worst performances of the season, no matter what happens over the rest of this term.
We reported that week that Vitor Matos was a contender for the Swans job. Much of it went by the wayside as Kim HellBerg was still the focal point at that time. It has to be said Hellberg has done a superb job at Boro despite falling to Coventry City 3-1 on Monday evening. The big Championship improvement has to be Norwich City who sit top of the Championship over that ten game form table. That is an incredible achievement after looking like relegation contenders up until Christmas. Twenty one points from thirty speaks for itself.
Bristol City sit in ninth and the Swans in sixteenth in the actual table, five points separate the two clubs, the Robins one point out side the play offs, the Swans six. That’s how crazy this Championship is at the moment. There really isn’t a team below the top two (Coventry and Middlesbrough) who have really got to grips with the play off spots. Millwall are somehow in third spot and from them down it’s a real firefight. The league for Swansea City will be a lot clearer after these two home games, it will certainly determine where Matos is as he navigates his first season in the Championship.
The last two home games have brought seven Swansea goals albeit against Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday but those games were there to be won.
It’s been a pleasure to see how dedicated he is to getting this Swansea side into a mindset that winning every game is achievable. The Robins have cleared their 1,740 tickets which is the general allocation for away sides at the swansea.com, it will be a real scrap that’s for sure and remember it isn’t one of the main games on Sky Sports and there are still tickets available. A handful remain in the East Stand the rest are available in the South and West Stands.
Upcoming fixtures after these two home encounters are below which leads us up to the international break and Wales tilt at getting to the World Cup this year.
** In the event that Wrexham's home clash with Hull City, scheduled for Tuesday March 10, is required to be moved to Wednesday March 11 due to FA Cup scheduling the previous weekend - March 7 - the game against Swansea will be moved to Saturday March 14 (8pm KO), and remain on Sky Sports Football.
It’s all there to win.
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