The Swans ended 2016 by conceding three more goals to lose at home to Bournemouth and go into the New Year needing what looks to be a miracle to stay in the Premier League for a seventh successive season.

It was the 6th time in the last 7 outings that our defence has been beaten at least three times and summed up the problems that exist at the club at the moment - problems that go far deeper than just a poor team on the pitch and will mean that we should really spend the next seven months putting right those issues so we can at least look to compete back in the Championship once again.

I think it is reasonably painful as well to lose in this fashion to Bournemouth who repeated our rise through the divisions but have retained everything that was good about their rise during a time where we have seemed hell bent on throwing everything that was good about ours away.

Gone has gone the style that bought us into this division. Gone has gone the confident passing game that saw us cause so many upsets in the preceding five seasons. Gone has the young hungry talent that served us so well over the year and it has been replaced by some very average players who simply do not either have the bottle or the desire for the fight.

And gone to be honest has gone the enjoyment as well as we surrender so meekly the place we worked so hard to gain back in 2011. That is four straight defeats now scoring just two goals and conceding thirteen in the process and we reach the halfway mark of the season with a total of 44 goals in the against column in just nineteen games. Tells you much about where things have gone wrong.

Goals from Afobe, Fraser and King tell you the half story of a match where we were totally outplayed and - as the old saying goals - were lucky to get nil and of course there was the traditional comic defending that set up the opening goal. Jordi Amat's miscued clearance cannoning off goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and presenting Afobe with the chance to drill a low effort into the net.

Right-back Simon Francis, winger Junior Stanislas and Wilshere picked the Swans apart with a neat succession of passes, before Stanislas' low cross set up Fraser to fire in from close range.

Bournemouth continued to dominate after the interval and, although Stanislas and Afobe missed decent chances, it proved academic as substitute King collected Charlie Daniels' through ball and finished calmly to seal a comprehensive victory.

There was more calling for the removal of Chairman Huw Jenkins as the game entered the closing stages and it becomes difficult to see him seeing through this crisis which many will tell you they believe is down to his poor player recruitment and on the basis of the starting XI today it is probably difficult to argue too much with that feeling.

As you normally do at the end of a match you look forward to the next game which for the Swans is Crystal Palace away on Tuesday but on showings like this there is every chance that we could wake up Wednesday morning at least seven points away from safety and looking like a Championship side with very little argument against that statement already.

It is sad to see what we have become over the past couple of years and today just about summed it up, a team with no backbone, no leadership and for now at least no manager,

A horrendous end to a horrendous year

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