With the Easter bank holiday weekend drawing to a close, it was time once again to head off to the Liberty Stadium to watch the Swans take on the Valiants of Port Vale. It was also the time that Mrs DDWT confessed to feeling like a football widow! Gawd help her if the Swans make it to the Championship I say (it’s a big IF mind).
After Saturday’s encouraging performance at Bristol, the expectation levels were high for a repeat performance – from what was likely to be a different starting line up. I’d be hoping that Daryl Duffy would make a start instead of Pawel ‘Russ’ Abbott – and thankfully my wishes were granted. Some pace in our frontline at last hurrah!
A match report for rather easy 3 nil win can be found on the official site. In all honesty a 5 or 6 nil return would have been a fairer reflection of the game, with the 2nd half seeing numerous chances spurred by Britton, Williams, Butler, Abbott and Duffy. Still I’m not complaining, in many ways the performance reminded me of last season’s 7-1 drubbing of Bristol City at home – with the Swans carving their opponents up at will. It’s a shame the finishing hadn’t been as good.
Despite the performance, the 12,400 odd crowd took its time to get going – which I’ll put down to the sheer number of people who seemed to be nursing a hangover. Mind you the rather – understandably – quiet Port Vale fans didn’t exactly help matters either. Still it did get going during the latter stages of the game and I’ve not doubt it DOES have an impact on the players in a positive way.
My man of the match today was Britton who gave his usual 110% contribution with runs up and down the flanks. Duffy was also another key performer with his pace and eye for goal. The defence also deserve a mention – and despite there being two changes from Bristol – they once again performed well as a unit – Dennis Lawrence is fast becoming an excellent acquisition for us.
The only disappointment really was that other teams in the play-off hunt didn’t drop many points, so the challenge is now to win on the road next week in Bournemouth and hope the other teams drop points with us picking up some. Fingers crossed, I’ll be there once again and we’re making a family weekend of it – so it should all be good fun.
After the christening of Mrs DDWT’s bike yesterday, it was time to cough up and get a nice helmet for DDWT Junior so that we could start to make the most of the numerous cycle paths in the area.
Fortunately for us, Halfords were having a sale and the helmet cost us £19.95 instead of £29.95. After much deliberation (and tantrums) DDWT Junior picked a ‘Bells’ helmet with motor racing cars on it – he seemed happy enough to wear it (as opposed to any others), so that can only be a good sign! Anyway, with summer just around the corner, I’m sure we’ll have our money’s worth.