Swansea City vs Hull City Matchday Thread. Liberty Stadium Tuesday April 12th 2011 7:45pm ko Welcome one and all. Tuesday night sees the arrival of Hull, who boast one of, if not the best run of form away from home in the UK right now. Their last loss came on the 28th of September away at Turf Moor (where they went down 4-0 to Burnley). In contrast, they are up against a more than miserly-at-home Swansea outfit, who've conceded just 9 goals at Fortress Liberty all season, and have recently put 3 goals a piece on Norwich, Forest and Leeds (with the Swans keeping clean sheets in two of those games, to boot). Interestingly, if you add together our home record with your away record, you get 77 points, only 2 behind QPR! Football is a mad game... ---------------------- Team news; Brendan Rodgers once again has a fully fit squad to choose from, and his biggest headache is likely to be appeasing players who have not featured so much of late. Particularly, Darren Pratley must be chomping at the bit, and Tamas Priskin will be pushing for a first home start, however if you ask me it's likely we'll see an unchanged 11 from the side that turned over Norwich on the weekend. Nigel Pearson is going to have to replace Brad Guzan (excellent on Saturday by all accounts) with Matt Duke. The former has to return to parent club Aston Villa due to the end of his loan spell, while the latter has been recalled from Derby given the injury to Vito Mannone. The only other worry for Hull is James Harper, and they are likely to give him a late fitness test before the game. -------------------- Recent form; Swansea beat Norwich at home last time out, and are now unbeaten in 5 home games since the 1-0 reverse to rivals Cardiff. They have, however, faltered away from home which has meant defeats to struggling S****horpe, Derby and Preston which may yet prove crucial in the race for promotion. Hull have it the other way around, with inconsistency at home coupled with a fantastic away record. They've only won 3 of their last 6 home & away, but on the road they've won their last 4 games, and 5 of the last 6! Impressive stuff, no doubt about that. It all bodes well so far for an intriguing game... --------------------- Last time out; Hull City 2 - 0 Swansea City This game was all about John Bostock for me, he completely ran the show before smashing home an absolute screamer to seal the 3 points for the Tigers. --------------------- Key battles; For the Swans, it's hard to look past Scott Sinclair and his goals this season...... but I'm going to. Fabio Borini has given the club a lift since he came in, and has scored 3 goals in as many games (all coming at the Liberty Stadium thus far). He'll be looking to test Matt Duke, especially given that Brad Guzan had started 16 of the last 17 games. Duke will be looking to put in a confident display to put in a claim for the no1 shirt. Also it's worth noting the re-invigourated strike pairing of Aaron McLean and Matty Fryatt, who've started to click of late. The Swans defence will have to be just as stout as they were against Norwich if we're to add another clean sheet to this seasons tally. ------------------- Hull come into this game just 5 points off the play-offs, and while they are unlikely to view the Swans as a soft touch, Nigel Pearson will undoubtedly be reminding his players of the 2-0 reverse on the opening day of the season, as well as reinforcing the importance of the current amazing away run. This means the Tigers will come into this game full of confidence despite the difference in league positions. Swansea meanwhile closed the gap (and stopped it becoming nigh-on unassailable) by beating Norwich on the weekend, and are now just a point off 2nd place, and a goal off 3rd place. We're at the point of the season where it looks like goal difference is going to play a very crucial factor, so every goal really will count. The Swans, like Hull, will be full of condifence given their excellent home record. ----------------------- Special Mention; I will always, always remember that day at the Vetch Field when we made sure of our Football League status be beating Hull City 4-2. We needed those points a lot more than you did at the time, and where we both sit in the upper echelons of the footballing pyramid is testament to how far we've both come since then, but no matter how many promotions we enjoy, goals we score, or marquee signings Daiswan arranges ( ;-) ), I will never get a better feeling than when James Thomas looked up, saw the space, and chipped the keeper for his hat-trick, thus ensuring our survival as a professional football team. Spine-tingling stuff. ----------------------- Predicted Lineups; Swansea City 01 De Vries 02 Williams 03 Taylor 16 Monk 22 Rangel 12 Dyer 21 Sinclair 24 Allen 27 Gower 14 Dobbie 15 Borini Hull City Hull 01 Duke 03 Dawson 04 Hobbs 16 Chester 25 Gerrard 30 Rosenior 14 Cairney 22 Koren 28 C Evans 12 Fryatt 33 Mclean ------------------------------ Scottswan's famously ill-fated (but recently spot on!) and hugely biased prediction - Swansea City 3 - 1 Hull City Here's hoping to a good match from two teams who have every right to go into this game full of confidence. STID.
The " Regular 11 " that you posted is set in stone for the rest of the way Scott IMO . Our last 5 home games brought us wins against Donny , Leeds ,Forest & Norwich while 1 point was all we could muster against Watford . Can't see why Hull will fair any better at Liberty than the rest of the " The Contenders " .... 3 - 2 Swans with Cardiff & Norwich drawing WOOOHOOO !! It's getting real now !!
