Well, it was bound to happen and we duly crashed down to earth…or Wales…with a bump.
It had to come to an end at some point. After four wins on the spin a fifth was always going
to be asking a lot. Most of us at least thought we’d make a better fist of things on the Welsh coast though. Against a Swansea side missing both Michu and Bony, AP must have fancied his chances of picking up something. Many expected changes to be made as the squad looked to cope with the second of three games in a week. However, the gaffer chose to stick with the 11 that saw us to victory against West Brom. But with HBA missing with Flu and Papiss withdrawing from the bench having picked up a heel injury in the warm-up, once we went behind there was a distinct lack of game-changing firepower. Although ultimately the hosts deserved their victory, the score line was perhaps flattering. We went behind after Tim failed to clear a cross and sub Nathan Dyer volleyed home. It was a bad time to concede and our number 1 probably should have done better. The second half was much brighter, with Howard Webb waving away a pair of penalty shouts that were, at very least, 50-50. From the second of these Swansea broke and, despite Debuchy making a cracking last ditch tackle, the ball still ended up in the net having ping-ponged off Krul and the Frenchman. Truth be told the game was up at that point and Jonjo Shelvey added a third, although he can count himself lucky to have still been on the pitch after an albeit minor clash of heads with our right-back. After picking up 12 points in the last four games AP has bought himself a period of immunity, however, it will certainly be interesting to see whether Shola gets the nod come Saturday.
SAM DALLING
It was always going to end somewhere. We were never going to go the remainder of the 
season without defeat. We were also always going to have “one of those games” where you feel like the world is against you.
Despite the penalties that weren’t and the fact a 6 foot tall phallic object got away with a head-butt, we simply weren’t at the races today. It all looked too good to be true at the start when they were missing their two top strikers. Alas, we capitulated in a way that only we know how. Had decisions went our way; it could have been a very, very different result. In fact it probably would have been. If my aunty had balls etc.
It will be interesting to see what action the FA will take against Shelvey, His excuse following the game was laughable. He’s an idiot. He’s called “Jonjo”…what’s all that about?
Twitter is naturally in meltdown at the moment, as you’d expect. The bed-wetters are back out in force but I think some perspective is needed here. We have won 12 points out of 15…that is not a bad return. In fact, it’s very, very good. Time to pick ourselves up and see what we can do in Salford at the weekend.
Steve Farrell
Jesus, that will have to go down as one of the most tiresome football matches in living 
history, made even worse by the monotone dirge that was ‘commentary’ from Michael Owen if you, like me, were unfortunate enough to have to watch on TV. Swansea passed it back and forth about a million times, which was pointed out every few seconds, presumably to irritate the watching audience enough to keep us awake. However, it was United who looked the more dangerous side, actually doing something with the ball and forcing Vorm into a superb save from a Remy header. Against the run of play, the home side took the lead on half time, a decent volley from Nathan Dyer, made tawdry with goal music that echoed around the silent home fans.
