Around 13,000 Swans fans witnessed one of the best performances by the Swans in years as they hammered Bristol City 7-1 at the New Stadium, Swansea today.
Kevin McLeod was again the hero of the day, scoring a hatrick to take his tally this season up to 7 with his 2nd of the game being a screamer from 25 yards.
It would be hard to describe and emphasise how entertaining this match was with 7 of the 8 goals scored coming in the 2nd half.
Bristol City had key players but I think we still all thought it would be a tough game against a side desperate to get out of this division. Swansea started the game off well and pressurised the visitors constantly as they failed to bring Gueret in action.
Swansea were knocking the ball about well and again we all saw the style of football we want to see, pass and move football was causing problems and it was a matter of time really before we were going to open the scoring.
Martinez showed his excellent passing ability who got the ball out wide to our wingers who were badly marked by Bristol’s full backs.
As the 4th official showed 2 extra minutes to be played in the first half, soon later Swansea won a corner which resulted in Swansea’s first goal of many.
McLeod completes his hatrickMcLeod took the corner from the right hand side, in swinging to the near post and both Akinfenwa and his marker missed it as the ball went straight in. With a minute left, Trundle who didn’t have too much of the ball in the first half, could have made it two but the keeper made an excellent save to deny the scouser.
The fans were delighted with the first half performance and Bristol City needed to tighten things and to improve overall if they were going to get anything out of this game.
5 minutes inside the second half, and Akinfenwa increased our lead and McLeod was involved again. His first time pass to Akinfenwa saw him pass 2 defenders before shooting low from 18 yards.
8 minutes later and it was Trundle’s turn to score. Shirt pulling in the box resulted in the ref pointing to the spot and Trundle made no mistake this time to extend the lead again to 3-0.
McLeod’s confidence was sky high as he attempted a shot from the half way line and it forced the keeper to fingertip the ball over the bar for a corner. He did score a cracking goal though on 69 minutes when he let fly from 25-30 yards this time and his shot swerved in the air giving the keeper no chance as it flew into the top right hand corner.
2 minutes later and you guessed it – another goal and Trundle, who found it much easier to play his own game in the 2nd half, he recieved a forward pass from Martinez and with no defenders around he managed to volley the ball home with ease.
Izzy somersaults but his goal is dissallowedLeon Britton was next in the scoring queue who found acres of space just inside Bristol’s area and sprinted forward before scoring well with his weaker left foot.
Bristol City then got themselves a consolation goal and it was a good individual effort from Cotterill who guided the ball into the corner around the fully stretched Willy Gueret.
McLeod then completed his hat trick 3 minutes from time before Iriekpen somersaulted only for his goal to be disallowed. The only bad thing to come out of the game was to see Austin sent off after receiving two yellow cards during the game.
Bristol City really were awful at the back but don’t take anything away from the Swans as to score 7 in any competitive match is something special. It could have been double figures for the Swans with 23 shots on goal compared to Bristol’s 3. The football we saw being played was fluent and quick with some very impressive attacking moves. I’ll be surprised to see a defeat on Tuesday night against MK Dons with the confidence and morale within the squad.
