Match Day Thread Swansea City v Preston North End

Swansea City v Preston North End

Competition - Sky Bet Championship
Venue - The Liberty Stadium
Date - 5 April 2021
Kick off - 15:00


Following their hugely disappointing 0-1 defeat by Birmingham, next up for a Swansea squad looking increasingly out of form and short of confidence, is a home match against Preston.

On Friday evening, Birmingham snatched a huge win in their fight for Championship survival as Scott Hogan's injury-time penalty further damaged the Swans' fading hopes of automatic promotion.

Blues had missed a first-half spot kick when Lukas Jutkiewicz blasted straight at Swansea goalkeeper Freddie Woodman.

Swans substitute Yan Dhanda had a free-kick saved by Neil Etheridge but Dhanda then brought down Ivan Sunjic, and Hogan punished him with an emphatically taken penalty.

Victory moved Birmingham up to 20th in the table, six points clear of the bottom three, albeit having played four games more than Rotherham United, the highest-placed of the teams in the relegation zone.

As for the Swans, a third successive defeat leaves them nine points adrift of second-placed Watford.

Even with a game in hand on the Hornets, the Swans are losing ground in the race for promotion and look increasingly like they will be in the play-offs for a second successive season - assuming that they can start to turn things around, otherwise even a play-off spot could be missed .....

It is now three matches without a goal for the Swans and, in truth, they rarely looked like ending that rut at St Andrew's.

Earlier that afternoon, Brad Potts scored a deflected 95th-minute equaliser to spark wild celebrations as Preston North End denied runaway Championship leaders Norwich City a 10th win in 11 games.

Emi Buendia's stunning long-range effort looked to be enough to overcome manager-less Preston and earn the Canaries a win that would have set a new club record of 14 away league victories in a season.

The normally reliable Teemu Pukki had missed three great chances to be sure, unluckily seeing a fierce strike come back off the bar and also missing two wonderful one-on-one chances.

Preston took advantage of the away side's profligacy and avoided a fourth successive loss when Potts cut in from the left and found the corner of the net with a well-struck effort from the edge of the box.

The Swans have played Preston on 64 previous occasions, winning 26, drawing 18 and losing 20.

In the corresponding fixture last season, the Swans ran out 3-2 winners in an entertaining match in which Borja Baston netted twice for the home side:

Turning to Easter Monday afternoon, I am expecting Cooper to shake things up and give starting berths to Cabango, Hourihane and Whittaker - it would be good to see a changed formation particularly after Lee Bowyer’s ‘telling remarks’ that the Swans are predictable. Will Cooper react to that (arguable) criticism or will he carry on regardless, shouting Infamy, Infamy they’ve all got it ‘infamy’...

I’m hoping that the Swans can stop the rot and prevent a fourth successive defeat, but I am not hopeful of a win. 1-1 for me

 

Great write up once again Taff. All my optimism that I had for a good finish after the international break has been sucked out of me. Sinclair will score its odds on, Cooper will pick the same players, no plan B, no change in formation etc etc.

I’m hoping for a win, draw is possible probably be a lose. Well I’ll be giving it a miss anyway, work to do in the garden at least there will be some sort of reward from spending some hours in it.

 

On current form I think a 0 - 1. PNE will employ the same tactics every other team does against us, namely the high press. Coops doesn't have a plan B, so...

 

Thanks Taff and looking at the way we played against PNE August last season in Coopers first few weeks it was fast passing and forward passing with a shoot on sight policy.....he seems to have sucked all the positives out of these players worse ever than Sousa or Carvahal in his latter days....my confidence levels are draining and I am not enjoying watching us any more the first time I can say that for a very long time....hoping for a no score draw with plenty more positives coming from SC

 

Thanks Taff. Oh how I wish for an Easter revival. I can't see this being a pretty game but I think we will grind out a 1-0 win

 

Same here as many others - any optimism and enjoyment has been kicked out of me. We've been dreadful the last 2 months - we just don't look like we can create chances. The football is boring and lacks confidence. I see opportunities to go forward at times, only to see the player with the ball slow it down and pass back or sideways instead of the incisive ball that is there to be played. Whilst Coopers game management is dire in terms of substitutions ( I mean what was the point of putting Routledge on with 3 mins to play ????) , I think the players are knackered and lacking confidence. We had a January window - which has been absolutely pointless apart from Hourihane.
I'd just like to see a different team/formation put out - give the players who haven't had much of a look-in a chance to prove their worth. Nothing can be worse than the performance the 'constant 11' put in the other night.

 

https://www.not606.com/threads/swansea-city-v-preston-north-end-liberty-stadium-5-3-2021.391930/

Afternoon folks greetings from the North West enjoy the game

 

A much improved display expected so 1-1

 

Leeds United lost £64m during the coronavirus-hit 2019-20 season despite winning the Championship and gaining promotion to the Premier League.

The club spent £46m on players last season as Marcelo Bielsa's side ended a 16-year absence from the top flight.

It handed out £20m in promotion bonuses but saw an increased commercial revenue on the previous season largely thanks to merchandise sales of more than £15m.

 

0-2.

 

A day late but someone rose again from the dead so hopefully we can replicate that feat . If we're looking for a miracle then Cooper will have absorbed where the problem lies and will adapt accordingly, 2-1 if not then for me all hope is lost

 

I will check team, if it is the same as Friday, I will not watch

 

Same here.

 

But he might tell them to attack at all costs instead of playing long balls he might speed the forward passing up @nd surprise us all with his positive change of tactics

 

April the first was last week ....

 

Seriously though I appreciate that we are all feeling depressed with our non exciting football which has now put is in to some sort of freefall but I can remember Easter time back end of March 1975 the year we ended up being re-elected to the league...played home on Good Friday against Torquay lost one nil.....played home on the Saturday against Reading lost two one and on the Monday we played away at Bradford City but beat them two one. Crowds of two to three thousand at the time watched us struggle but came back for more in the hope that we saw a win. Those players were not superstars some local lads and some journeymen who gave all they had for the team.
I just hope our prima donnas throw away the guide book and give their all for themselves and for us...

 

I was thinking the exact same thing, although I might give it 10 mins to see if there's any improvement. If not - I'm not wasting my time on it.

 

60 seconds

 

Swansea City head coach Steve Cooper makes four changes and switches formation for this afternoon’s fixture against Preston North End.

Ben Cabango, Ryan Manning, Conor Hourihane and Morgan Whittaker come into the side, as Ryan Bennett, Jake Bidwell, Korey Smith and Kyle Naughton all drop to the bench.

The Swans line-up with a four-man defence as Freddie Woodman continues in goal, with Cabango pairing up with Marc Guehi in the centre, with Connor Roberts and Manning at full-back.

Captain Matt Grimes joins Jay Fulton and Hourihane in midfield as the Republic of Ireland international returns from a hamstring injury.

Jamal Lowe and Whittaker will operate either side of Andre Ayew in attack.

Swansea City: Freddie Woodman; Connor Roberts, Ben Cabango, Marc Guehi, Ryan Manning; Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes (captain), Conor Hourihane; Jamal Lowe, Andre Ayew, Morgan Whittaker.

Substitutes: Ben Hamer, Ryan Bennett, Korey Smith, Wayne Routledge, Yan Dhanda, Joel Latibeaudiere, Jake Bidwell, Kyle Naughton, Ollie Cooper.

Preston: Daniel Iversen, Sepp van der Berg, Liam Lindsay, Jordan Storey, Andrew Hughes, Ben Whiteman, Ryan Ledson (captain), Emil Riis, Ched Evans, Tom Barkhuizen, Brad Potts.

Substitutes: Mathew Hudson, Tom Bayliss, Louis Moult, Paul Gallagher, Jayson Molumby, Paul Huntington, Scott Sinclair, Lewis Coulton, Billy Bodin.