Swansea City extended their unbeaten run to 4 games in the Championship tonight after earning a point at home to QPR, but we should have claimed all three after a dominant performance from Martinez`s side.
While the Swans dominated with an impressive display of free-flowing passing football, Dowie`s side resorted to dirty tactics, resulting in 6 yellow cards for his side, and Dorus De Vries leaving the field early with a broken jaw.
The referee must have left his red card at home, as the visitors found themselves lucky to still have 11 men on the pitch at the end as late tackles were flying in on the likes of Gomez and Britton, who`s pace and skill frustrated the opposition.
Despite losing our goalkeeper before the half hour mark, defender Alan Tate had nothing to do in between the sticks thanks to a solid defence in front of him and the fact that our midfield were able to maintain possession so well.
Martinez made just the one change to his side as Scotland replaced Pintado up front after being rested on the weekend following his international duty with Trinidad & Tobago.
Rangel – Williams – Monk – Painter
Gomez – Britton – Bodde – Pratley – Gomez
Scotland
His performance can`t be criticised too much in fairness tonight as he contributed in the opening half with some useful lay-offs, but his lack of pace and poor touch made it a simple task for the opposition`s defence to limit his threat in the game.
QPR had half a chance early on to score but after that it was mostly Swansea who were creating opportunities on goal. Gomez went close after 7 minutes after winning a free-kick, but his curling effort around the wall went just over the bar.
5 minutes later, Monk did well to pick out Scotland down the right but the striker was unable to trouble the goalkeeper.
The Swans began to dominate at this stage but our lack of shooting on sight was frustrating the fans as the visiting goalkeeper had little to do in the first half.
At the opposite end, a rare QPR attack resulted in Dorus De Vries suffering a broken jaw and leaving the field with just 27 minutes on the clock. The Dutchman bravely came out to claim a through ball but Rowlands slid in dangerously, and luckily got away with just a yellow card. The referee soon received a chorus of boos from the home fans and things didn`t improve from the men in black as more rash tackles came flying in from the opposition. Yellow cards were dished out to 6 opposing players but the referee must have left his red card at home.
Luckily Tate wasn`t called into an action for the remainder of the first half, and even in the second half as we continued to dominate possession. Jordi Gomez and Ferrie Bodde were the main threats for us as they both had half chances before the break.
The second half continued just like the first half ended really, as the Swans went on the search for their opening goal.
Despite their possession, we still struggled to force the goalkeeper into making a decent save in the opening 45 minutes as we were always looking to pass when a shot at goal was always a worthy option, especially with the shooting abilities of Bodde and Gomez.
Things improved slightly after the restart and the keeper was forced into punching away a powerful free-kick from Bodde, while Pratley, Britton, Gower and Monk also had chances.
The visitors, who clearly were playing for a point, defended in numbers as Scotland in particular found it difficult to cope inside a busy penalty area. Mark Gower got more involved down the left wing but his crosses were often wasted as we were always outnumbered in the box.
While all QPR could muster in the last third was a few long-range free-kicks into the box, the Swans kept piling on the pressure and it was Gomez again who was getting closest to netting our opening goal.
He saw a free-kick curl just over again before hitting the post following good attacking play from Mark Gower.
With the clock ticking down it was obvious we needed a change up front and while most of us expected to see the arrival of Pintado, who was continuously warming up on the touchline, it never came.
It was an impressive performance from the Swans, who played some superb and neat passing play but we lacked that killer touch in the final third as we struggled to break down a solid QPR defence.
You`re not likely to see a more one-sided 0-0 draw than that , and if we maintain that level of performance this season, a mid-table finish should be a guarantee.
