It happened at Bradford and it?s happened again today. Swansea threw away another lead as they conceded an equaliser deep into injury time against Hartlepool thisafternoon.
Tommy Williams wasn?t fit for the match as Kevin McLeod replaced him on the left wing while Lee Trundle had to make do with a place on the bench after recently returning from injury.
After dropping down to third place in midweek, it was a must-win game for Jackett?s men as anything less than 3 points could have seen the gap widen at the top.
Swansea had plenty of possession throughout the game but they found it difficult to create chances and cause danger to the Hartlepool defence.
After 8 minutes, Hartlepool had the ball in the net but Sweeney was ruled offside.
It wasn?t deserved but Swansea took the lead on 20 minutes when Akinfenwa rose for an aerial challenge with Hartlepool?s keeper who didn?t deal with the cross. Leon Britton pounced on the loose ball to score his third goal of the season.
Pool keeper Konstantopoulos, as well as their fans were furious that the ref hadn?t given a foul but protests got them nowhere as the goal stood.
5 minutes later, Butler was forced to leave the field on a stretcher with a hamstring injury and Eifion Williams came on as his replacement.
Sam Ricketts made a good run along the left wing and his cross was met by Akinfenwa whose weak header was easily dealt with by Konstantopoulos.
It was also a shame to hear that Tommy Williams wasn?t fit for the match. Kevin McLeod?s performance was diabolical in which he showed no effort or determination and his passing was awful.
His attitude suggests that he?s done enough earlier in the season to secure his future with the Swans and all he has to do is show up. It doesn?t work like that Kev and the sooner you realise it the better.
Akinfenwa began the game pretty well in which he did the job he was given ? to get the ball down and feed it to Leon Knight.
Over the past few weeks, Swansea have been given the chance to hang a decent lead at the top. Games against sides like Swindon, Hartlepool and Port Vale are there for the taking but we only managed to get a point in all three.
Hartlepool started creating more clear-cut chances on goal in the second half and loanee Jon Paul-Pittman went close when his shot hit the bar following a corner.
Moments later, Gueret was forced into making an excellent save from Strachan?s curling effort from a free-kick. At full stretch, he managed to tip the ball away for a corner as it headed for the top left hand corner.
The crowd were calling out for Trundle to come on as we needed to kill the game off. Leon Knight made way for our top scorer but Pool held tight at the back.
With 10 minutes left, Swansea fans seemed pleased to see Akinfenwa leave the field as Adrian Forbes came on to partner Trundle up front.
With 3 minutes of injury time left, Swansea just had to wind down the clock by wasting time to guarantee the 3 points. Hartlepool however managed to grab themselves an equaliser with just a minute or two to go as Welshman, Eifion Williams scored at the far post to share the points.
It was fair to say, Hartlepool?s performance deserved a draw as they defended well and they also created decent chances in the second half to get back in the game and it finally paid off.
Swansea on the other hand produced a pathetic performance in front of nearly 14,000 fans at the Liberty Stadium and they need to get their act together if they want to gain automatic promotion this season.
Match photos here
Player Ratings
Willy Gueret 6/10
Made an excellent save from the free kick and dealt with what was thrown at him.
Sam Ricketts 5/10
His performance looked better than it was by the awful McLeod in front of him. He still isn?t performing to his ability.
Garry Monk 5/10
Passing was terrible but not a bad performance.
Izzy Iriekpen 6/10
The pick of the defence.
Alan Tate 6/10
Did well at times but we know he can do much better on the attack.
Andy Robinson 4/10
Terrible defensively, tried hard but nothing he did resulted in anything.
Roberto Martinez 6/10
Commanded the midfield well and won the ball often. Someone needs to tell him which way the goal is, as I don?t remember one key forward attacking pass.
Kevin McLeod 2/10
2/10 and that?s beign generous. No effort whatsoever and played for himself. Drop him now.
Leon Britton 6/10
Scored our goal and his pace caused problems. Lack of support on the right didn?t help him in the second half. He comes into the centre too often which leaves space on the wing that we didn’t use to our advantage.
Leon Knight 5/10
You can?t expect him to score when he has no service from midfield.
Adebayo Akinfenwa 4/10
Did well second half but for a big guy his heading is worse than Little Leon?s. He was way too slow in the second and didn?t do anything when he was in front of goal.
Adrian Forbes
Not really on long enough to do anything.
Fans Views:
Doesn’t look fully fit and didn’t really add anything to the side.
Post Match Comments:
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