Swansea City missed the chance to go 5th this afternoon after a hugely disappointing 1-1 draw against bottom club Charlton Athletic.
Nathan Dyer gave us the lead just before half time but the visitors equalised with a shot that deflected past the helpless Dorus de Vries.
It was the worst home performance of the season as we looked jaded and uninterested and struggled in front of goal with Jordi Gomez in particular 2 great chances to win us the game.
| by cyjax | ||
| “very poor game, Charlton are a very poor team, this was a disgraceful performance” | ||
Roberto Martinez made one change to Tuesday’s side, Garry Monk returned from a back problem to line up in defence, and there was also a surprise place for Darren Pratley on the bench.
The game got off to a slow start, we were sloppy in possession and conceded the ball in dangerous areas far too often, gifting Charlton a few half chances on goal.
Our first real chance came after 7 minutes. Angel Rangel played a superb pass with the outside of his right boot to pick out Dyer’s run down the right flank, his cross picked out Guillem Bauza but he was unable to finish from inside the box.
Martinez was then forced into making his first chance as the half hour mark approached, as Monk went off and was replaced by Albert Serran.
With us dominating against a poor side, it was a wonder how it took so long to opening the scoring and thankfully we did just before the break. Nathan Dyer scored his second goal for the Swans as he latched onto Bauza’s through ball, and netted well on a one on one with the keeper.
It was a goal we more than deserved as Dorus de Vries was mostly a spectator for the opening 45 minutes.
We needed to increase the tempo in the second half and increase our lead but we failed to do that, and later Charlton punished us. We looked far too static in possession, we were poor with our passing and our finishing was shocking at times.
We needed to change things in the middle as Gomez and Bauza struggled to create chances for us. Martinez finally did bring someone on after 68 minutes but it was the wrong decision to replace Mark Gower for Tom Butler, he didn’t make any impact on the left wing and we needed Pratley’s energy and drive to try and get us a goal.
We had a few half chances involving Butler and Scotland but at the other went, Charlton went closest to taking the lead as Bailey’s free kick struck at the cross bar. Moments later de Vries made the save of the match. Serran was caught in possession and lost out to Ambrose, he looked destined to score on a one on one situation but the Dutch keeper made a magnificent stop.
The visitors’ equalising goal certainly gave them a boost in confidence as they began to close us down a lot quicker and had the belief they could grab all 3 points.
As we entered the last 20 minutes of the game, we finally started to get forward often and create chances but lacklustre finishing meant we were unable to get 3 valuable points.
Gomez was through on goal but he fired a powerful shot over the bar, and in injury time he somehow skied another effort from just a few yards out.
Darren Pratley then received a warm welcome back after a surprising early return from a shoulder injury.
We then a strong appeal for a penalty late on as Scotland was brought down in the box, the player didn’t win the ball and it didn’t appear as a dive from our striker, so it was strange for the referee to ignore our claims for a spot kick. He was handing out the cards left, right and centre today, he gave us a lot of decisions in the first half but was the complete opposite in the second.
We had 5 minutes of injury time to play but you just knew by then it wasn’t our day in front of goal. Our standards dropped immensely today and more performances like that and we won’t get the points needed to finish in the play-offs.
We should be beating teams like Charlton at home if we’re chasing a top 6 place, but we looked tired today and struggled to get our passing game into full flow, or any flow for that matter.
Match Photos by Paul Owen
Player Ratings
de Vries – 8
Made a superb save when it looked certain that Charlton would take the lead, other than that had little to do.
Rangel – 7
A decent performance and was solid defensively.
Williams – 6
Don’t think he was worthy of the man of the match vote as he didn’t do anything particularly impressive. He was also caught in possession once or twice and struggled in the second half.
Monk – 6
Wasn’t on for long.
Tate – 6
Made some good attacking runs but his poor clearance led to their equaliser.
Gower – 6
Average performance but was unlucky to get subbed.
Britton – 8
Star player.
Gomez – 6
Should have won us the game, finishing was terrible, how he missed from 4 yards I’ll never know.
Bauza – 6
Didn’t offer us much really and he’s nowhere near a midfielder on today’s showing.
Dyer – 6
Scored but was far from a great performance from the loanee. Not proving he’s a £750,000 player at the moment.
Scotland – 5
We didn’t get him involved at all, his first touch was terrible and offered very little in attack.
Serran – 5
Lost possession, struggled in the air and nearly cost us a goal.
Roberto Martinez
“The goal they scored was unfortunate but we showed a good reaction and had two great chances to win the game in the last few minutes.”
More quotes here
Phil Parkinson
“It was a great show from the players and after we equalised we even went looking for the winner,”
More quotes here
