Whatever they say in a pre match huddle it didn’t work for Swansea City this afternoon. With little threat and no ability either on the ball or in front of goal this game was over after three minutes at the Swansea.com.

The Swans lined up without Harry Darling despite some positive signs on Thursday morning which we reported on the Indy. It seems this morning more stringent tests ruled Harry out. The Swans having gift wrapped a number of opposition goals this season started in the same fashion today. This time Josh Key provided some extra sellotape to his ball control trying to be clever. The ball was robbed from him and a stroll into the penalty area by Flemming found Brownhill who easily converted his chance. It has to be said there is a huge question mark over Lewis O’Brien when that cross came in. He hardly broke jogging pace and had he tried harder he could have had more impact on the outcome.

That was on three minutes, after that for a good six minutes the Swans continued to give the ball away wasting their energy on chasing their own mistakes. Nothing looked dangerous in the Swans play, they couldn’t execute passes to each other and with ten minutes gone it all looked pretty toothless. Headers were missed and passes that could have started something went disregarded. Franco wasted a decent chance to build a move on eleven minutes but ran the ball out of play.

The noisy crowd at the start were now fairly quiet and the play on the field wasn’t helping.

The gifts kept on coming, on fourteen minutes the Swans assisted Burnley in a move passing the ball out to their wingers. It was very thoughtful of the home side, they were getting far more success assisting the Clarets than they were at the other end of the pitch. A great example of the overall daftness of this Swansea side. No thought or control in their thinking when Josh Tymon just booted a pass so hard it went out of play. In the Swans guise today that was a pretty good defensive clearance on behalf of Tymon for Burnley.

On twenty one minutes Anthony scored Burnley’s second goal. Having had a variety of efforts beforehand, kindly not cleared by the Swans defence he was allowed to gather the ball from close range and fire his shot into Vigouroux’s goal. The class and quality may have been the difference in some watchers eyes, for me it was gross incompetence yet again as per Wednesday evening at Watford - and so many games this awful season.

Some hope came around the twenty ninth minute, some good work on the flanks was followed up by some shocking crossing by Ronald. Even when some good work was there to be finished off the ability to do so was completely lacking. and yet again we saw Franco pass the ball to the opposition in the Burnley area. He should have taken the opportunity to shoot.

On thirty four minutes Burnley broke down the Swans right, and although Vigouroux collected the cross Josh Key was just jogging back with Naughton covering his position. An awful lack of effort from a player out of his detailed position. On thirty five minutes good play by Eom led to a shot by Franco, it clearly hit the Burnley defenders arm, had it not done so the ball was heading towards the goal. Referee Langford who has had some poor games when officiating the Swans gave a corner. It wasn’t a good look for Langford decision making and professionalism. Eom had a shot on thirty eight minutes, Eom working a good angle to shoot. A corner followed as Tymon delivered the cross and Liam Cullen headed his opportunity straight at the Burnley keeper, James Trafford. Langford was definitely leaning towards Burnley in this game.

Another wonderful chance to create something was wasted by Vipotnik on forty minutes, as he strode forwards he passed the ball to the invisible man to his right. The invisible man didn’t oblige with any assistance whatsoever and became a Burnley player. Everything the Swans were doing and it was a lot better for the last fifteen minutes of the half fell short. Nothing was working despite the effort (I had visions of the Chairman then) With two minutes to play in the half the fourth official was ready to offer his thoughts on injury time, it seemed in his world a first half lasts far shorter than forty five minutes. More ball was given away by the Swans, a deflated crowd again greeted the play with groans and moans and really had the Swans taken some advantage of their chances made they could have been at least one goal back.

Overall as we all know who witnessed this game today the Swans weren’t very good, and even less when it came to ability compared to their opponents.

The second half started with Burnley very much on the front foot and Swansea aiding them with poor passing. Three good efforts from the away side pushing the Swans backwards and denying them any space to build. Franco wasn’t having a good game, when in a dangerous position as per the first half he gave the ball away on fifty one minutes. What was noticeable throughout this game was the work of Liam Cullen, despite some errors he was always available for a pass or to assist in a withdrawn role.

Tymon tried to get the ball into the Clarets area on two occasions, his efforts not as sweet as the those Burnley goals. Then some more extraordinary decision making as two Burnley players were clearly offside and nearly got in to add to their tally. With Swansea subs waiting on the sidelines the game continued. It wouldn’t surprise anyone in the ground as Franco left the field on fifty six minutes as did Eom. Jay Fulton and Ollie Cooper were on. More sketchy decision making followed from Langford, offering Burnley some distinctly advantageous free kicks. However, on fifty nine minutes a free kick was awarded to the Swans out on their left. Once again the ball was cleared with Swans players stretching and out of position. More stupidity from Langford followed. He wasn’t judging this game at all well. Anthony just running into Fulton and diving to the floor in front of the dug outs.

Vipotnik continued to battle, he got a shot away on sixty one minutes which was blocked. Then a handball that was actually noticed by the referee. The issue being the Swans having gained an advantage just gave the ball away. Their overall play wasn’t at all on the level of their opponents. Lewis O’Brien was fouled with twenty five minutes to go. It was a nasty challenge. That led to a chance for Cooper who just couldn’t get a touch from an excellent Fulton cross. The Swans weren’t being outplayed as such, they just couldn't breach a defence that had let in just two goals in twenty two hours of football.

Cynical Burnley fouls followed, Laurent on Cullen that should have seen him carded. The following free kick from Tymon (below) met by Cabango whose header hit the back of Vipotnik. The story of the game so far. Burnley made some subs and Swansea followed suit readying Sam Parker and Joe Allen. Before that a delicious cross from Tymon was met by Ronald who headed a glorious chance wide. Despite some ugly passing by the home side the Swans did have chances to score. The latest one nothing to do with Burnley defending, it was just poor finishing.

The subs came on for Swansea as Lewis O’Brien and Ronald replaced by Sam Parker and Joe Allen. Ronald had been pretty invisible this half. More bizarre choices were being made by the Swans, Liam Cullen almost clearing a header for Burnley when a flick on would have caused some danger. On seventy three minutes Fulton was booked for a foul on Clarets sub Hannibal. It was Cabango’s turn to give the ball away now passing the away side into a dangerous position. As expected Cyrus Christie came on for Naughton with fifteen to go.

So far we had seen one shot on target from the Swans but a few blocked as well. The ruling now being the keeper has to save a shot for it to be on target. Blocks by players other than the keeper do not constitute a shot on target even if they are. Odd but true. We were entering the final ten minutes of the game with any form of hope slowly eroding. Parker was put in after good work from Cullen but the young U21 regular completely misjudged his pass to Vipotnik. Christie copied Tymon’s pass from the first half and it really does leave you wondering why someone who does this every day in training could even conjure up an idea like that.

On eighty two minutes some very ill thought out passing from the Swans led to another Burnley attack. A chipped cross was met by Foster who headed straight into the hands of Vigouroux. The Swans play was now thoughtless, no player is barred from criticism.

Parker was then presented with another opportunity to cross but he miss hit the ball, it was cleared and despite having time to gain control and put in another cross he let it roll out for a throw in. Burnley now had their eye on an all time second tier record of twenty seven games with no goals conceded, testament to the Clarets season. Their four hundred or so fans would greet this win ecstatically as they slip into second place in the league. The Swans are now in sixteenth place just six points above the final relegation place. They still have four of the sides below them to face as they continue to look for two wins from their final eight games.

The Swans next game comes on Saturday Match 29th March with a 3pm kick off at Leeds United, yes it doesn’t get any better for the Swans.

⚽️ Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux 7 Josh Key 5 Ben Cabango 6 (captain), Kyle Naughton 6 (Cyrus Christie 77) 5 Josh Tymon 7 Lewis O’Brien 5 (Joe Allen 73) 6 Gonçalo Franco 5 (Jay Fulton 57) 6 Ronald 6 (Sam Parker 73) 5 Liam Cullen 7 Jisung Eom 6 (Ollie Cooper 57) 5 Žan Vipotnik 6

Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Josh Ginnelly, Florian Bianchini, Arthur Parker.

⚽️ Burnley: James Trafford, Maxime Esteve, CJ Egan-Riley, Josh Brownhill (captain), Jaidon Anthony (Ashley Barnes 89), Connor Roberts, Zian Flemming (Lyle Foster 70), Marcus Edwards (Hannibal Mejbri 69), Lucas Pires, Josh Cullen, Josh Laurent.

Unused Substitutes: Vaclav Hladky, Oliver Sonne, Joe Worrall, Jeremy Sarmiento, Manuel Benson, Luca Koleosho.

⚽️ Referee: Oliver Langford 3/10. As poor as ever. He sees things other people don’t see.

Attendance: 13,679
402 away.

Alan Sheehan reaction.

Photographs Swansea City AFC & open source

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