Swansea City are currently fourth in the Championship, but there are a number of injury concerns this morning, along with questions over the players still available and their ability to win away from home.

Stephen Welsh is the latest concern and has already been seen at Sancta Maria Hospital in Swansea.

The treatment table promises a busy week before the Swans take on Birmingham City away this coming Saturday (3pm), a fixture for which the away allocation sold out weeks ago. Looking at those currently receiving treatment, five would almost certainly have featured last night. Strength in depth is one thing; having players who can step in and repeat what the Swans did to Blackburn Rovers is another. Despite that, there is no excuse for the performance, even with five of the six players currently sidelined unavailable last night.

There seems to be little faith in the likes of Tom Iorpenda, Jeremy Monga and Thomas Woodward to come on and make a difference, or even start, so Matos immediately limits his options. The plan last night was clearly disrupted once again by an on-field injury, this time to Welsh.

Tony Mowbray stated after his side’s 4–0 defeat at the weekend that a team with a more direct attacking strategy could overcome the Swans’ game plan. Well, that certainly proved to be the case last night. Early heavy challenges and a high press disrupted the midfield, and Swansea couldn’t live with it. When they did get the ball, their play was hurried. Apart from a Jay Fulton shot, they failed to turn possession into any meaningful threat. The foul on Stephen Welsh was a shocker.

It was, as many stated, quite hopeless.

Matos’s reluctance to use the aforementioned players, coupled with five first-team players already out and Welsh now requiring assessment, leaves the Swans down to the bare bones for Saturday’s game. Let’s look at the stats from last night.

If stats never lie, these figures suggest that Swansea were competitive at Portsmouth last night. The next set of figures, viewed without watching the game, would also suggest that the Swans competed well. Despite Vítor Matos’s post-match assessment, they didn’t.

The head coach stated after the match: “I thought in the second half we did really well. We created chances, we got the goal through the penalty and in that period it looked like the game would turn to us. We were on top in the game, but then we concede a goal from a set-piece which is something we need to learn from and improve. When you want to grow as a team you need to handle these situations, we know what we need to do better and make sure we stay in control and balanced in the games”

You can’t say the second-half performance was the same as the first, but that opening period was as bad as anything we saw at Queens Park Rangers. After the break, the Swans did at least string some passes together. They were clearly better, but could they really have been any worse?

That said the disallowed Portsmouth goal after a challenge on Jenson Seelt saw the Swans players slow down in response to the referees whistle, so Pompey can cry all they like, play had already stopped. Ross Stewart (below) had a golden chance to put the Swans ahead very late on, he fluffed his lines.

We can also put the Vipotnik penalty to bed.

On injuries, Matos explained: “Stephen has suffered something on his knee. We will need to assess him before we can understand the extent and the gravity of the situation. We will wait and see what the answer is there, we also had a couple of knocks which limited the availability of some players so we will now need to assess them.”

We expect those assessments to include Ben Cabango, who picked up a knock against Blackburn. The treatment table will be extremely busy, and with the toughest away game since Southampton coming up, it’s another issue Matos could do without.

Check out last nights full match report and other headline news below.
⚽️ Match report and latest news

Photographs as per disclaimer plus already licensed Reuters