Swansea City v Fulham Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Swansea.com Stadium Date - 8 March 2022 Kick off - 7:45pm Following their comfortable and fully deserved home victory over Play-Off contenders Coventry, next up for Russell Martin’s Swansea squad is a home match against Championship leaders Fulham. Whilst this looks and feels like a daunting challenge for the Swans, they will go into the match on the back of 3 wins out of the last 4 matches - exactly the same record as that of Fulham. On Saturday, Michael Obafemi's double helped the Swans to an impressive 3-1 victory over the Sky Blues. Jamie Paterson opened the scoring when his precise drive rounded off a superb passing move - Coventry were opened up down their right as Korey Smith - playing in an unfamiliar left-wingback role after Hannes Wolf tested positive for Covid - played a sharp one-two with Paterson. Smith centred for Obafemi to lay the ball off for Paterson, who drilled a fierce, left-footed shot across Simon Moore and inside the far post. Now it was Obafemi’s turn to shine - firstly when goalkeeper Andy Fisher lofted a precise pass to Flynn Downes and he strolled unchallenged towards the Sky Blues’ goal before rolling the ball into the path of Obafemi, who slid a shot under the advancing Moore and into the bottom corner. Then three minutes into the second half, Matt Grimes dispossessed Ben Sheaf in midfield and threaded an inch perfect pass through for Obafemi, who outpaced Kyle McFadzean and beat Moore with his second measured finish of the afternoon. Coventry responded despite the deficit, but Gustavo Hamer's composed effort came too late as they missed the chance to cut the gap to the top six. A first defeat in four games saw the Coventry slip to 11th, four points adrift of the top six, while the Swans stay 16th. In Saturday’s early kick off, Fulham extended their lead at the top of the Championship to 11 points with victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Blackburn Rovers at Craven Cottage. It was the Cottagers' ninth win in their past 11 league games, and followed a dominant first-half display in which Neeskens Kebano and Harry Wilson netted without reply. The hosts started at full pelt and took the game to Rovers, whose passive display in the opening 45 was punished when Kebano fired in after Neco Williams' shot was spilled by Thomas Kaminski, and then when Wilson lifted a long through-ball from former Blackburn loanee Tosin Adarabioyo over the Belgian keeper for a second. Sam Gallagher was sent on after the break to give the visitors more of a presence up front and he was only denied a goal by the offside flag after burying the rebound from a Bradley Johnson header. Fulham remain top, 11 points clear of Huddersfield in second place and 12 points clear of Bournemouth who have 2 games in hand. Huddersfield have played 2 games more than Fulham. The Swans have played Fulham on 68 previous occasions, winning 24, losing 34 and drawing 10. With Fulham being in the Premier League last season, we have to go back to the season before - in November 2019 - for Fulham’s last visit to Swansea, when they ran out 1-2 victors, thanks to a first half brace from - who else but - Mitrovic. George Byers netted a second half consolation for the Swans: How did Surridge miss that chance at 0-0 Turning to Tuesday, the big issue for Russell Martin is, should he persist in playing Kyle Naughton at (middle) centre back or should he put a ‘bigger/taller/more physical’ player there - Martin must surely remember what Mitrovic did to us earlier this season when he scored a hat-trick in the first half at Craven Cottage. Personally, I think that Kyle Naughton has been our most consistent player this season - my Player of the Season so far - but there is a huge physical mismatch between him and the Championship’s record scorer. It could be that, with Cyrus Christie unavailable against his ‘mother’ club, Martin could decide to play Naughton in Christie’s position and select Bennett to combat Mitrovic? I think that if Martin decides to mark Mitrovic with a big centre half, then the Swans will be capable of securing a point in a 1-1 draw. However, if Martin plays Naughton as his middle centre back against Mitrovic, then I think that we will lose 1-3 (I hope I’m wrong )
Heard yesterday that the front of shirt and back of shirt sponsors are sorted for next season - 2 local businesses, as opposed to an educational establishment.
Thanks Taff. I went to the away game and I hope RM will learn from that game the importance of not giving Mitrovic space in the box. I am hoping we will earn a hard fought point but I can see Fulham coming away with all three points.
Swansea City midfielder Olivier Ntcham has been included in Cameroon's 38-man preliminary squad for their 2022 World Cup play-off against Algeria. The 26-year-old is among four new faces in the first squad named by new Indomitable Lions coach Rigobert Song. Ntcham, a former France Under-21 international, has scored three goals in 27 appearances for the Swans this season joining on a free.
