Tiverton 3 Swans 1
Friday, 27th Jul 2001 00:00

Young Swans Chuck It Away In Lacklustre Display

Swans lined up as follows 3-5-2 as follows: Jason Jones

Steve Healey Matt Bound Leigh De Vulgt

David Arranz Jon Coates

Gareth Phillips Craig Draper Bari Morgan

John Williams Chris O'Sullivan

Swans looked the more lively side in the opening exchanges with David Arranz looking very encouraging and tricky going forward. Looked very much like a man on a mission for a contract.

Arranz played some neat interchanges with Williams and the nippy looking O'Sullivan playing up front. It was the latter who came closest to opening the scoring after cutting in from the left and curling a nice shot just wide of the keeper's left hand post. The back three looked pretty solid and Gareth Phillips was getting in some surprisingly meaty tackles in the middle of the park. Tiverton rarely threatened, winning a few corners which Jason Jones gathered comfortably. He also got down low to his right to smother a dangerous shot too.

Tiverton almost took the lead when a neat move finished with a flick that came back of the bar with Jones stranded. Minutes later the Swans almost grabbed the lead but the woodwork this time came to Tiverton's rescue.

A free kick on the left hand side, just outside the box looked tailor made for a Boundy left footer, but up stepped young Draper who curled a right foot cracker which came back off the inside of the far post.

On 14 minutes, though, Swansea took the lead. Arranz and O'Sullivan combined on the right flank to win a free kick in line with the six yard box. When it was whipped in to the box, O'Sullivan was quick to react and turned to drill a right foot shot into the net. Not too much else to say about the half apart from Coatesy came more into it, Williams did little to impress and the midfield dominated. Incidently, I was surprised to see Bari Morgan playing as he'd just been released by the club days earlier!

Second half, a bit of a different story. No change in the line up, but Swans looked less interested than the first half and Tiverton came more into it. Bari Morgan had the best chances of the half. He should've done better when he found himself played through but flicked his shot wide. He was unlucky shortly afterwards with a header which flashed over the bar after good work by Boundy in the box following a corner.

The longer the game wore on, the more Tiverton looked likely to grab an equaliser. Jason Jones, who'd been faultless throughout, had his customary mad 15 minutes. First he failed to tip an easy header over the bar and was lucky the ball was scrambled clear after it came back off the bar. He then flapped at a corner but luckily no one was on hand to capitalise. Tiverton eventually equalised after they made a series of substitutions which sharpened them up and made our back four work a bit harder. Their number 14 was played onside by De Vulgt when a long ball was played through. De Vulgt tried to catch him, Jones came off his line but was lobbed rather easily.

The non league side dominated the last 10 minutes and took the lead with a cracking flick header from 14 which sailed past Jones with about 2 minutes left. The third, about 20 seconds later was pure farce. We kicked off after their second goal, Williams without looking - tapped the ball inside to a Tiverton player and about three passes later the ball was tucked in the back of the net by another sub. In summary. It's hard to read too much into tonight with so few first choice players missing. The youngsters acquitted themselves fairly well in the first half, but many faded badly in the second. But - we didn't look like the league side for too much of tha match.

Gareth Philips had a decent match, Coatesy had a decent second because more of the play was down the left which meant Arranz had a much quieter half. Young Healy at the back played well, Draper and O'Sullivan started brightly but vanished later. Williams looked pretty clumsy and unimpressive. Subs - Rob Shannon and an unknown Aussie - Dean something?? replaced Phillips and O'Sullivan. Attendance 381 with about 20-odd Jacks, including - naturally - Mark "Taxi to Darlington" Evans. Looking forward to Plymouth in September. Sorry this is a bit of a disjointed report, but hope it paints a reasonable picture of what happened.