The 93rd minute

I rarely write a match report these days because... well, there are so many out there and most people see the match live or recorded it seems a little pointless.

However I am going to share a few of my thoughts about Swansea's frustrating match against Stoke, which ended 3-3 thanks to another injury time penalty!

Conceding in injury time to the detriment of points is an unfortunate habit that the current Swansea side seem to have fallen into. Swansea fans usually have a lot of patience, but nobody would blame even the most docile fan for getting irate, considering it's happened three times in as many weeks (twice with Kuban Krasnodar and once with Stoke).

Twice it has been a penalty - the one against the Russians was justified, however the one given to Stoke by Robert "The Twat" Madley was little more than a guess on his part and replays show very little to suggest otherwise. He cost Swansea the game. Referees make mistakes, but that really was a tough mistake to swallow.

However - even though he is fully to blame for his stupid decision - we have to look at why Swansea aren't able to close a game out. There must be an underlying reason why concentration lapses and the opposition score and there must be a solution! I'm not saying they need to take the ball to the corner flag at the end of every game, but whatever happened to the easy passing that would ensure the team would keep possession until the final whistle? I guess this is a discussion for another blog post though.

Anyway, if we put the annoying ending aside it was definitely a cliched "game of two halves", with the first a complete shambles, similar to many other Swans games we've seen recently, and the second half a perfect representation of what Swansea should play like week-in week-out. 

So - were some Swans fans within their right to boo the team off at half-time after that dismal 45 minutes? It's completely understandable that they were frustrated and I believe all fans have a right to voice their opinion. However a muted clap or just silence is probably a more dignified way to let the world know you were not keen on the performance. Boos - while a good way to make yourself heard - are more for clubs who are in a really bad place, like those who want to get rid of a manager or those who are in the relegation places (think of Sunderland recently). Boos aren't really Swansea City.

Finally I will touch upon Chico Flores and his play acting. When the team are doing well nobody seems to mind it (or at least nobody speaks up about it), but yesterday when the team were looking like a Championship side, Chico hamming it up was quite embarrassing. Like boos, play acting and deliberate diving is not really what Swansea are about. Yes, it can be amusing occasionally and was an oddly refreshing change when we first saw it, but ultimately there is no need for it in football and it's becoming a little cringe-worthy. I feel he will stop this - if only from the amount of abuse he got on Twitter yesterday.

The international breaks always seem to come at a bad time for Swansea, but let's hope the team can regroup and rethink what is going wrong - and what is going right - before the away match at Fulham on Saturday 23rd November.