What suddenly seems a rather important game in one of our few remaining fixtures against a side below us in the table. However, again it won't be a straight-forward one with Swansea being another struggling side that seem to be improving under a new manager - in this case former Notts County manager Luke Williams, who took over from Michael Duff in January. Williams has led them to two wins on the bounce, a 2-1 away at Sunderland and 2-1 at home to Blackburn. On the pitch, helping to lead the charge for The Swans in attack have been Brazilian superstars Ronaldo and Paqueta!! !!.... Oh, sorry... make that the Brazilian signed in January from Estrela in Portugal "Ronald", and the Pole signed on a free from Norwich "Placheta": For the Hornets, I along with many will no doubt be hoping Andrews will finally be getting another start to give us some extra attacking verve down the right flank and help silence some of the rumours around him. I thought he seemed relatively sharp in his cameo vs Millwall. Aside from that I don't suspect there'll be many changes from Millwall, aside from if Ismael concludes Kayembe is actually not up to speed enough yet. But you never really know what selection Ismael has up his sleeve. He might throw a dart at a board to determine which of our regularly rotated RCBs will be starting alongside Hoedt. Maybe he'll experiment with trying Ince at LB instead of the lacklustre Lewis? Prediction: I won't be venturing one!
After yesterday this has the potential to get very ugly very quickly. If we go 0-1 down then the atmosphere will become toxic. I’ll say it’ll be a draw though
That is easy to say but what minute will the Taffs score ? I say 2 and 89 and in between vast amounts of huffing and puffing , Bayo charging about trying to regain his first touch off a Swansea player for example
I think we can stop the rot here but not with a win. I do not feel we are quite at that level of bouncing back from two shocking performances in a row to suddenly turn on the style and send the Swans packing. A score draw would at least halt our losing run at home and be another point closer to securing absolute safety. Of course, other results will determine where we finish in the table Wednesday night and defeat could put us just three points from the drop if every other result goes against us. However we can only concentrate on ourselves, and if avoid a defeat at minimum, it would mean going into a tricky home game with a playoff chasing Coventry with at least an inch of confidence in the side. Play anything like we have done recently (concede a goal early, faff around at the back) then I fear for VI's future. 1-1
Am coming over for this one, and Coventry. First matches since beginning of last season (Burnley 1-0). Are we still any good? Nice that it's a crunch match. Not nice that we seem certain to lose Questions that will be answered: Who in our squad is neither gutless nor unfit nor useless? Is the manager really so confused? Judge me, but I'm actually looking forward to a bit of toxicity from the crowd. Maybe trigger a comeback from 0-1, and "inspire" the drift to 15th. Things building to a head.
Hard to say really. If we lose this and Coventry with terrible performances thrown in, Gino has two weeks to find an intern. Results pending around us we could be very close to the bottom three as six points in two games is easily made up by the chasing pack. Regardless of where we are, I cannot see him ignoring our performances for the next to games if they are sour. Even if he needs to extend the bank loan to pay him off, I can see him doing it.
I expect that Gino has an intern lined up already - usually has his little black book to hand. It's just a question as to whether Val has reached the point where he is no longer "the right fit".
From my very amateur perspective, the going 1 down so early appears to come from us trying to do the 'keep the ball and pass it around' tactic straight from kick off and beyond. Teams are fresh and alert and press us into early mistakes. The general concept of keeping the ball and passing it around is hardly revolutionary, but there's something to be said for playing it very safe early on and then build into the game. Doubt we'll see a change though, so guess we just need to keep the fingers and toes crossed we get through the first 20 on par.
The ‘pass it around the back to settle into the game’ tactic has one vital necessary component: defenders who can control the pass they receive & then are capable of passing to a team-mate. Spot the flaw?
Our only hope is for Swansea to field the Toshack team of the '80s. Alan Curtis,Tony Curtis,Ian Callaghan etc. Might manage a draw.
It comes to a point where we can't trust this team to win any match, whatever the opposition and wherever we're playing. There's a similar situation in the bottom half of the National League if anyone has been following it, where York (who sacked ex-orn Neal Ardley last week) are in a not dissimilar boat (although we only have an outside chance of relegation, whereas they are in deep trouble all of a sudden) - only three home wins all season, just lost what should've been a very winnable game at home to Wealdstone even with a new manager, and in the meantime several teams around them after looking dead and buried or at best strong candidates for the drop have gone on amazing runs of form (Fylde thrashed play-off chasing Aldershot at their place 5-0, Kidderminster have won four away wins on the bounce including two at the 4th and 6th teams), and all of the top teams, even Chesterfield, are being inconsistent. This will be a good chance to address the poor home form with a win, but how many times have we been saying something like that with winnable games, and how many more times if we don't win this one?
Swansea are an absolute mess from free-kicks, bizarrely going man for man which is very rarely seen from FKs these days. Scored one with Blackburn the other day and they've also conceded against Sunderland and Bournemouth since their new manager joined in January. Will we notice this? Probably not. Will we take advantage of this? Definitely not.
Bad day for the happy clappers. Watford 0 - 2 Swansea The players still get a standing ovation at the end of the game.
How many Watford managers survive being on the brink? He was under a bit of pressure earlier in the season, but nothing like this
Meant to be some protests in the ground on Wednesday. Will be interesting to see how they reckon they will get the signs in!
Didn't even realise we had a game until I went onto Super Six to check my score this week. Then saw we were one of the midweek games. Who knew.
Whenever you get to that level of support during an inept season and players' half-arsing it, you know something isn't right at the club. However, most if not all of us have been at this point for the majority of the last five seasons. It's depressing when you have to watch your team in desperate hope that they will turn things around each game. Hence as each game passes, you lose more and more motivation to care. It's not our fault either. Gino probably cannot see what he has done wrong let alone be bothered to fix it.
Yes, although be prepared for the club to count you in attendance as a ST holder when it announces to a half full Vic towards the end.
My prediction 0-2 and the clank of seats from people exiting when Swansea score their 2cnd will be in the 74th minute
