During the build up to the game everyone had commented on how difficult it was going to be against a well organised Scunthorpe side fresh from giving Sheffield United a 4 nil spanking at Bramall Lane.
And so it turned out to be as the Swans had to wait until the 83rd minute before opening the scoring – courtesy of Scott Sinclair with Stephen Dobbie adding a 2nd just minutes later.
The scoreline looked comfortable, but in fact it couldn’t be further from the truth. Scunthorpe – although offering nothing in attack – managed to stifle the Swans fast, free flowing football in the opening half thanks largely to closing us down every time we had the ball.
They were also aided by a totally inept referee in the shape of Danny McDermid – whom when searched for in Google, it appears is never far away from being described as ‘appalling’ and ‘controversial’. Having seen him in action it’s easy to understand why!
I might have guessed it was going to be a strange kind of day though as for some bizarre reason I got searched on the way into the Liberty Stadium – a first I hasten to add. I was well tooled up mind you, what with maltesers in one pocket and my mobile in the other – oh and I was wearing a hoody, so that explains it I guess 🙂
Watching the Swans warming up it became apparent that our 3 month loan signing from West Ham, Frank Nouble, was in the starting line up – at the expense of Stephen Dobbie.
Throwing an 18 year old rookie (Premiership or not) straight into a side having been at the club less than 24 hours was a gamble to say the least. Brendan obviously had faith in the lad, but it could have gone so horribly wrong.
In fairness to Frankie, he looked half decent in the opening quarter, but as the space got tighter and our game got stifled he became less effective. The lack of match fitness and team familiarity also became very evident – which was expected to be fair. He could be a useful acquisition though.
I was very surprised to see Scunthorpe wearing Celtic’s away kit from the 2009/10 season as well. Check out the pictures below if you don’t believe me!!
Celtic:
Scunthorpe:
Seeing that line up was almost as funny as seeing Swans captain Garry Monk wearing a Hong Kong Phooey headband. What was that all about Garry?
All jokes aside though, it was another 3 points and perhaps most of all we’ve kept our 100% league record at home intact AND having only conceded 1 goal in the process.
My man of the match award goes to our Welsh left back Neil Taylor, whom I thought was excellent in defence and attack – with some of his crosses being right on the money. Just a shame we didn’t have anyone on the end to bury them!
My away fan guesstimator was also very close again for this game with my estimate being 130 and the actual Scunny away following being 125. Despite tweets suggesting otherwise, I didn’t count them!!
Next stop for the Jack Army is Peterborough away in the League Cup on Tuesday evening, so another tough game is on the cards. But let’s face it, is any game “easy” nowadays?