[jjamez]

Following Tuesdays defeat away at Middlesbrough, Town move swiftly on, back to home turf to welcome Swansea to the John Smiths Stadium. We've said it time and again about how we look to improve and rectify the mistakes of our last games, but yet again, its silly or stupid mistakes that cost us once again. Duncan Watmore scored a great goal in fairness to him, but Lewis O'brien and Naby Sarr were both equally culpable of terrible defending, Sarr committed himself and dived into challenges twice, and failed on both occasions to make contact with anything, O'brien just found himself tied in knots out at left back. He was at fault again, giving the penalty away, being caught flat footed with the ball coming into the area, sure the Boro player came on his blind side, but its simple reading of the game. Although Town should take note, that driving into the box can earn you penalties, snail pace passing around the box, won't, not like we'd score it anyway, who's next to take Towns? I wouldn't back any of them to be honest, but think if on the pitch it should be between Ward and Bacuna, even though he missed that one earlier in the season, failing that, possibly Toffolo. Schofield should have done a lot better with the penalty, it was poorly taken and he somehow managed to dive over the ball. He was already flustered from minutes earlier flying out needlessly under a cross allowing Boro's Grant Hall a free header on goal, luckily the linesman flagged for offside. This all came after a great start from Town, with Isaac Mbenza curling in a free kick after  9 minutes. Town started to attack more in the final 20 minutes, with subs Aaron Rowe and Kieran Phillips both looking troublesome, the latter coming close with a pointblank header across goal that was well saved as well as hitting the post, after showing composure to side step a Boro defender. They both showed drive and a willingness to attack the opposition which is a breath of fresh air, much like Koroma was before his injury. Boro saw Paddy McNair controversially sent off but Town once again failed to score past 10 men.



Our opponents on Saturday come into the game with one day less to rest having played Nottingham Forest on Wednesday evening. The Swans came out 1-0 winners, but in all honesty having watched the game, I wasn't very impressed with them, they could easily have lost the game with Forest hitting the woodwork and coming close on numerous occasions. For a side that have the joint fewest goals conceded in the whole of English football, Swansea found themselves cut open quite a few times, with Forest having a counter attack much like ours on Tuesday, ours failed when Vallejo failed to take the ball with him, Forests attack ended because Lewis Grabban took a touch too many and picked the wrong pass whilst being 3 on 2. Swansea did look dangerous on the attack at times, but they too looked like they wanted one pass and one touch too many, they finally took the lead in the 87th when Connor Roberts got on the blind side of the Forest fullback to rise and head home.

The Swans now sit third in the table and have yet to lose in league action this year, their last defeat came away at Derby in the middle of December. There has been a lot of football since Town went to Wales and came back with the 3 points, thanks to a 2-1 win, Harry Toffolo and Josh Koroma scoring that day, Andre Ayew scoring from the penalty spot after Ben Hamer was adjudged to have fouled Korey Smith. Since then the Swans have won 13, drawn 7 and lost 3. Some of their most notable wins have been a 2-0 win away at Cardiff, Jamal Lowe bagging a brace for the Swans, whilst Cardiff saw Joe Ralls sent off for two yellow cards. Lowe bagged another brace in a top of the table clash against Watford on the 2nd of January, Tom Cleverly scored for Watford, but the result saw Swansea climb to 2nd in the league. The Swans travelled to a resurgent Barnsley side on the 16th of January and came away 2-0 winners, Ben Cabango and the Lowe scoring on that day, their last visit to Yorkshire saw them win 3-1 at Rotherham, Conor Hourihane, Matt Grimes and Jay Fulton all on the score sheet, Freddie Ladapo scoring for Rotherham. Ayew and Hourihane were on the score sheet once again in another top of the table clash as they welcomed Norwich City to the Liberty Stadium, the Swans ran out 2-0 winners and kept themselves in 2nd, 2 points behind Norwich. At the moment they are 3rd only 1 point behind Brentford, who have had couple of surprise defeats of late, and 5 points behind leaders Norwich, with the Swans having 2 games in hand over both.

Unsurprisingly, Jamal Lowe finds himself on top of the leading scorers for Swansea with 9, Andre Ayew shares that place though too and has 2 assists to boot, Matt Grimes has 4 goals, whilst Ben Cabango, Conor Hourihane and Connor Roberts all have 3 goals so far this campaign. Full back Jake Bidwell leads the creative charts for the Swans with 7 assists, whilst Connor Roberts is in second with 5. Yan Dhanda has 4, with Korey Smith on 3. Swansea have scored 36 goals this season, Town have 34, the main difference is that Swansea have conceded just the 15 goals, whereas Town, have one of the worst records with 44 goals against us, only Wycombe are worse with 51 goals against.



So who to keep an eye on? well, if you are 3rd in the league they all need watching, but the main standouts for me

Jamal Lowe- Looked good against Town last season whilst at Wigan, it would have been nice to snaffle him and Kiefer Moore in the summer, but we all know why that never happened. Primarily a winger, but has found himself moving more central up top with the Swans favouring a 3-5-2 formation. Seems to be proficient with both feet and with half a yard of pace to get clear and beyond, could prove a difficult customer for the aging Richard Keogh or Richard Stearman. The forward has had a steady rise, having started in the Barnet academy 8 years ago before a few quick moves between St Albans, Hemel Hempstead and then onto Hampton and Richmond, before joining Portsmouth in 2017. He spent 2 and a half years at Portsmouth, getting promoted from League 2 with the club, before scoring 21 goals in 89 games, coupled with 18 assists for Pompey in league 1, earning a move to Wigan. He scored 6 times for Wigan, playing there for just the season before moving to Swansea for 800k.

Andre Ayew- Has found himself having a few years in the Championship following Swanseas relegation a few years back. The former Marseille man joined the Welsh club back in 2015 on a free transfer, a year later he moved to West Ham for a fee just over 21 million but moved back 2 years later for just over 20 million. He spent the 2018/19 campaign on loan in Turkey at Fenerbache, partially to get his reported wages of over 80k a week. He has spoken about the pressures of earning such money and admits that he has to keep performing on the pitch to be able to earn that money, he's in his last year at Swansea and will probably only stick around if they go up. Towns reported highest earner is Schindler on 27k a week, but according to that site, our wage budget is 12m, a long way off the 19m as quoted by Phil. https://salarysport.com/football/sky-bet...ield-town/ only thing I can think of is that some of the main players are on a bit more ie ward, toffolo and sarr being on nearer to the 10k mark, and/or that a lot of the younger players are on upwards of the 1k figure.



Connor Roberts- An attacking fullback that is a product of Swansea's academy. Is now being utilised as a wing back and is being allowed to get further up the field. Has been an ever present for the Swans so far this season and will need to be watched due to the late runs he makes at the back stick when the Swans attack down the left flank. The Welshman has represented his national side 22 times since his debut in March 2018 and has scored the 1 goal. He has also had loans away from the Liberty Stadium, having a season at Yeovil, playing 54 times in total. He's also had brief loans at Bristol Rovers in 2016 where he played 5 times and last season he spent the first half at Middlebrough, where he made 4 appearances, 3 of which came in the league cup.



Like every club in the Championship according to Phil, Swansea weren't active. They did manage to bring 6 players in despite that inactivity. For the record, most clubs, despite their inactivity, brought in 3 or 4 players, with only Reading the only inactivity club. We did sign more players than most, but it was just another throw away comment by the owner it would seem, as the numbers don't back up his claims once again. Barnsley signed 3, Birmingham 4, Blackburn 3, Bournemouth 3, Brentford 2, Bristol 1, Cardiff 3, Coventry 4, Derby 5, Huddersfield 6, Luton 3, Middlesbrough 4, Millwall 2, Norwich 1, Forest 3, Preston 9, QPR 5, Reading 0, Rovrum 1, Wednesday 2, Swansea 6, Stoke 4, Watford 3, Wycombe 2.

I feel like Alan Lambourne there, but the highlights show on Quest would be worth a watch with those scorelines, and Town play Derby next in what would be a 5-6 thriller, we can all but dream!

Ben Hamer was the first through the door at the Liberty Stadium, he joined on an undisclosed deal from League 1 bound Huddersfield, watch him be selected on Saturday and suddenly become Manuel Neuer. He signed a deal that will keep him in Wales until 2022. Kieran Freeman followed signing again on an undisclosed deal from Swindon, less than a month after joining the league 1 side. The Swans then raided North American for a couple of loans, Paul Arriola joined on loan from DC United until the end of the season, whilst Jordan Morris signed from Seattle Sounders on loan with the view to a permanent deal.  Another loan in the form of Conor Hourihane came in as he joined for the rest of the season from Aston Villa and immediately settled in straight away in a 5-1 thrashing of Forest in the FA Cup. Finally, they paid just over 700k for winger Morgan Whittaker, I wonder if he got the same send off from Rooney as Holmes did?



In terms of departures, Ossett born Jordan Garrick left to join Swindon on loan as part of the deal that brought Freeman to the club, Kasey Palmer, Morgan Gibbs White and Viktor Gyokeres all returned to their parent clubs after their loans ended. George Byers left to join Portsmouth on loan whilst Declan John and Joel Asoro left to join Bolton and Djurgarden on a free and for 600k respectively.

Town will be without Schindler and Koroma for sure as they still face a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Danny Ward could be back...nah who we kidding he'll 'feel' something in his hair or whatever and miss a month because of it. Rolando Aarons is expected to still be out, next weekend may be the time that he starts looking like making some form of comeback. Its unknown as yet the extent of Mbenza's injury, but going on the post match press conference from Carlos, he's been playing with a couple of injuries for a while now, so it is more likely that he will drop out, especially with the game against Derby on Tuesday, so they may try patching him up for that. Jayson Leutwiller may make his debut in the place of Dracula, who has made a few mistakes of late and has started to look very nervous in his area. Richard Stearman, Jaden Brown and Rarmani Edmonds-Green all got some minutes, Stearman played the first 35 minutes in his recovery, so I imagine he will be on the bench, noticed he was almost in a coaching role on Tuesday night on the touchline. Jaden Brown played 83 minutes, so barring any mishaps, it would appear he will be ready to take the left back berth before Toffolo returns on Tuesday. A left back playing left back, who'd have thunk it? probably turn up on the right wing now. Edmonds Green played the second half so it is possible that it will be just a slot on the bench at most. After Tuesdays game, it will be interesting to see if Kieran Phillips and Aaron Rowe get to feature further. Fraizer Campbell looks to be running on fumes and snatching at every chance, not to mention still falling over, Phillips looked bright and positive, whisper it quietly, but he looked akin to Rhodes when he was here, just quicker and it would be nice to see him get a chance, Carlos seems to think he needs someone up top with him, if that be the case give it a shot, Swansea will have a back 3 on saturday so two up top will spread them a bit for any midfield drives. Rowe looks raw still, but has pace to trouble  defenders and has a willingness to drive at teams, sure he makes the wrong choice, but at least he's in the position to make that decision and still, just because its the wrong choice, doesn't mean we can't score from it.



Liam Cullen, Wayne Routledge, Brandon Cooper, Steven Benda and Tivonge Rushesha are all long-term absentees for Swansea, but they were able to welcome Yan Dhanda and Korey Smith into the fold for Wednesdays game, so both will be expected to feature in the squad on Saturday. Steve Cooper is prone to not using subs during games, at times not using any at all, he made 5 changes for Wednesdays game, so there could be a bit of rotation coming into Saturdays game.

Huddersfield have a fairly decent record when it comes to facing the Swans, having won 25, drawing 16 and losing 16. The first tie between the two sides coming back in 1952 on Christmas Day when over 28 thousand people attended Leeds Road to witness a 3-0 victory to Town in the Old Division Two, do you know anyone who went? It would be almost 6 year until Town would taste victory again against the Welsh side, but it would set up a 20 year period where the Terriers would lose just the 3 games, one being in the FA Cup. After that it became very too and fro between the two sides, it would be like that until the mid 2000's when Town would find some more dominance over the Welshmen, however, it would be they who rose up the leagues and reach the Premier League, whilst Town continued to fight to get out of League One and then survive in the Championship. Swansea had the upper hand over Town during the one Premier League season the two clubs shared, Carlos Carvahal, ultimately proving unsuccessful at keeping the Swans up, they would register a home win and hold Town to a draw at the John Smiths, despite Andre Ayew seeing red after just 11 minutes. Last season it was much the same, a draw at the John Smiths and the Swans winning at home, this time it was 3-1.


Swansea Annie Grams

1) An Unwire Jilt

2) Fetch Devil

3) Manly Job

4) Jock Hath Son

5) Rich Vocal Hurl

6) Hi I Always Smell

7) Hysteric Lawn

8) Fraud Dug Info

9) I Shoved Half Fads

10) Neat Rejection Hazes


Famous Jacks

Another nickname for Swansea is the Jack Army, but how well do you know your Jacks? Test your knowledge here, all are called Jacks, unsurprisingly, but not all are footballers or even sports stars.

1) A footballer who has spent his entire career at the one club. Had a loan spell as a youth player at Notts County as well as a knack of getting into trouble on and off the pitch during his early career and whilst he looks to be well on track now, trouble sometimes creeps into his life. Has been compared to a small Argentine who could yet turn up next season in England.

2) Speaking of Argentines, an Argentine has often been said to look like this Jack. This Jack started on TV in 1979 and came back in 81 being a regular on the telebox until his emotional death in 2010. Had a wife who always told him off for one thing or another, usually about how he looked.

3) Has been rather unlucky in his career so far, looked set for international honours but a ban stopped that happening and he would have to wait until 2018 to debut. Became a steady regular and a cult icon in certain parts due to performances and little idiosyncrasies. Luck would fail him again as a long term illness flared up, costing him his place but also coming close to costing him his career and his life at one stage. Has had to wait to regain his place, but it seems he may be back again for the long haul.  

4) Hugely popular on screen and can usually be seen running funnily on deck or on land. Normally drunk or getting there and often getting into trouble with various individuals, be it criminals or his majesties servants. When he's not doing this or on screen, he sometimes pops up and childrens hospitals to put a smile on kids faces.

5) A rotund individual who shows you dont have to be six pack abs to be popular in America or even the globe. Most famous for teaching kids how to play a type of music not usually taught in school instead of the usual maths and english. Is known for making funny videos during the lockdown, as well as letting his son shave his well known hair and beard. Has been seen on screen running around with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, as a girl in a mans body...

6) Was born John, but went as Jack, probably the lesser known of two brothers, despite having just as much success. Played his entire career at Leeds United and would go on to manage two north eastern clubs, before a famous 10 year spell as a national team manager. Didn't have the greatest relationship with his brother due to personal differences and marital problems. Was a freeman of Leeds and has a statue of him fishing.

7) A multiple Oscar and Academy award winning actor, usually playing a sadistic character or angry character. He has often played an American gangster but has still played the comedic role, even then its been rather dry and abrasive. Is famous for one scene in a 'war' film, where his character gets riled up and unleashes a memorable line.

8) An English comic who has a bit of a man crush on sporting stars Andrew Flintoff and Jamie Redknapp, even though Redknapp played for the arch rivals of the team he supports. Often comes across as camp, but is reportedly dating a model. Has most recently been seen travelling with his father.

9) A footballer who was tipped to be the next big thing having burst on the scene as a 16 year old. Had loan spells at a couple of premier league clubs to get game time and fitness, his career has been damaged massively due to numerous injuries and the seeming inability to play multiple games without breaking down. Is now playing in the Championship trying to get his career back on track.

10) Another highly rated player as a youngster, was seemingly destined to go onto big things, but ended up in relegation battle after relegation and combined with some high profile mistakes, his confidence has taken a beating and he seems to be now a sturdy deputy when required.

11) An individual who scared the people of London for many years. People died at this persons hands, yet they were never apprehended, with many rumours of their identity going around, from them being a member of the royal family, to being a trained physician. Is long dead and has turned into more of a work of fiction than anything else.  

12) A Yorkshire player who did don the white rose for a period and was an established member of the side for a few seasons. Has since left to a Southern county where he has had greater success, including a performance for that counties record books.

[theo_luddite]

Nice on jjamez,

I'll take a closer look at the kwiz stuff over a beverage or two now I'm clocked off for the weekend. In the meantime, this needs pinning to the dressing room door as a motivational message.

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/talking...sea-city-0

Shouldn't need a team talk when they post stuff like that on their website.

[ritchiebaby]

Just a quickie to discourage theo in his quintessential quiz quest

2. Jack Duckworth - should have gone to Specsavers
6. Jack Charlton

[theo_luddite]

Aunty grams
2. Vetch Field - no apologies for snaffling the easy one

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Jacks
1. Jack Grealish - too close to where I live not to miss him - apparently barred from every hotel in Brum for doing the 1960's pop star thing and trashing the rooms and the bars.
2. I don't do soaps me but had to suffer them at a younger age - so that might just be quack, quack Duckworth with the Elastoplast holding his specs together.
Richtea sneaked that in just before my edit, about 40 minutes before but who's counting?

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11 is Jack the Ripper and one of these has to be Jack Hunt - I'll go for 10.

Just getting my guesses in early before Snoots gets home from work

[Amelia Chaffinch]

anagrams

7. Cyril the swan

[Lord Snooty]

Anagram 4. John Toshack

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Jack 7. Nicholson.

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Jack 8. Whitehall.

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Jack 9. Wilshere

[ritchiebaby]

Anagrams
3. Jan Molby
5. Ivor Allchurch

[Lord Snooty]

Two changes. Vallejo and Rowe in for Pritchard and Mbenza.

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As it stands now, with Coventry 2-0 up against Brentford, we are down to 20th.

[jjamez]

I think Phillips deserved to start today up front, with or without Campbell. Carols seems to have got a case of the Conservative /defensive bug. Look at those defensive options on the bench! Gonna change the game when we're down

[ritchiebaby]

Same old story - score first, lose a goal just before half-time and then struggle to score again?