Swansea City extend their unbeaten run to eight games after being held to a goalless draw by Ian Holloway’s in-form Blackpool side at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon.
Both sides cancelled each other out in a tightly-fought match and the scoreline was a fair reflection really of how the game panned out. The Swans should have won the game, the three points were there for the taking but clear-cut goal opportunities were few and far between.
Paulo Sousa made some more changes to his starting eleven, and there was a surprise to see winger Nathan Dyer on the bench as Tom Butler replaced him. Fede Bessone replaced Marcos Painter at left back.
We lined up:
Rangel – Williams – Tate – Bessone
Butler – Britton – Pratley – Gower – Van Der Gun
Beattie
Swansea City got off to a slow start and it took Paulo Sousa’s side around 20 minutes to get settled and to play their usual passing game.
Our defence and goalkeeper had very little to do in the opening half, and at the other end our best chances were coming from set pieces, in particular corners. Williams saw a few headers fly just over the bar but that was as close as we got until we had an excellent shout for a penalty ignored by the referee and linesman. Charlie Adam, already on a yellow card, brought down Beattie inside the box, and while it looked a stone-wall penalty, the referee thought otherwise.
Swansea City ended the first half the better of the two teams and in the second 45 we speeded our play up as we looked to open the scoring.
We had a few more chances from set pieces but we still weren’t putting Holloway’s side under enough pressure at the back.
Our dominance continued, but Sousa needed to make some changes now as our 4-5-1 formation wasn’t effective enough on the attack.
On the hour mark, Nathan Dyer replaced Van Der Gun and added some much-needed pace and skill to the right flank, and while I thought Beattie needed a strike-partner, he was replaced by Lee Trundle and he was later joined by Gorka Pintado.
Dyer made a decent impact and shortly after coming on he made a superb bursting run, beating 3 defenders before finding Lee Trundle whose shot deflected wide and out for another corner.
Our best chance to win the game though came near the end as Fede Bessone made an excellent run down the left, his cross fell to Pratley but he scewed a shot wide of the target. 4 minutes of injury time were to be played but a goal never looked like coming.
It was a similar story today. Swansea City dominated possession and an indifferent start. We were comfortable defensively but I didn’t think we deserved to win because of our difficulty to break down Holloway’s solid side. There were a rather average team that didn’t cause us any problems, three valuable points were there for the taking but we lacked an attacking threat once again – something that needs improving if we are to push on and compete for a play-off place.
