Swansea City v Barnsley Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Liberty Stadium Kick off - 3.00pm Date - 19 December 2020 Following their woeful performance away at Pride Park against Wayne Rooney’s Derby, next up for Steve Cooper’s Swansea squad is a home match against Barnsley. On Wednesday evening, Derby County toppled the high-flying Swans to claim a first home win of the season. Despite the victory, Derby remain in the Championship's bottom three on goal difference even though they extended their unbeaten run since Rooney was made interim head coach. But this was a performance full of promise as Derby outplayed a Swansea side who came into the match on a high following their excellent 2-0 win away at Cardiff in the South Wales derby. However, the Swans never matched the heights of their Cardiff victory and Colin Kazim-Richards set the tone for the evening by putting Derby ahead from close range early on and a thumping first Rams goal from Poland international winger Kamil Jozwiak doubled the hosts' lead before half-time. The Swans improved a little after the break, but never looked like denying Derby a first Pride Park victory since they beat Reading 2-1 on 27 June. The Swans remain in 4th place in the Championship but are now 7 points behind Norwich and 4 points behind second placed Bournemouth. The previous evening, a goal 10 minutes from time by Victor Adeboyejo enabled Barnsley to come from behind to beat Preston North End and earn a third consecutive Championship win. Sean Maguire put North End ahead inside two minutes when he headed home after Cauley Woodrow failed to clear Paul Gallagher's corner. Barnsley were level after the break as captain Alex Mowatt curled home for the hosts from long range and they took the lead in the 80th minute when Adeboyejo worked on to Woodrow's delivery to complete the turnaround. The win moved Barnsley up to 9th in the Championship table, four points off the play-off places while Preston slipped to 16th. The Swans have played Barnsley on 74 previous occasions, winning 35, losing 24 and drawing 15. In the corresponding fixture last season, the teams battled out a goalless draw at the Liberty, having drawn 1-1 at Oakwell. Arguably, the most memorable match played by the teams was the 2006 League One Play-Off final which Barnsley won on penalties: Turning to Saturday, I’m pretty sure that Cooper will shake things up and have the Swans completely focussed on putting the defeat at Pride Park behind them. As such, I’m going are a (very hopeful) 2-0 home win
1 - 2. All my optimism's gone after that woeful performance against Derby. Unless something miraculous happens in the transfer market (plus manager + clue), I can't see us getting promoted, we just can't score enough goals.
Thanks Taff. Just getting over that rubbish last night. Leave Grimes and Smith on the bench start Fulton, Dhanda and Palmer linkng with the forwards and go for goals...I can but dream. Going for a sneaky win by one goal....
Well, it can't be as bloody bad as the Derby game, ........... Can it . can it ? .?. GOT to be better. Taff's write up lifts the gloom, .... Well done.
Thanks for the write up Taff. Tommy outhought for the Rams game. We cant score more than 2 with this man in charge. 1-0 Swans.
Having seen them working on the old Desso pitch during a Summer maintenance, I’d suggest that they’re trying a mid-season ‘patch’ to help it last until the end of the season. Today’s weather is not going to help much ..,,
Waiting for the call in the morning for volunteers to go in to brush the water off the pitch......oh hang on that was when we were down the Vetch where the pitch was......
Excellent foreword again Taff. Dec predictions for aswan dictate a home win. Not that confident given the mid-week farce. SWA 2-1 BAR #COYFJBs
Barnsley on good form and not far behind us, they are going for a play off place. Will be tough, Cooper needs to tweak the tactics for this one.
Swansea City boss Steve Cooper has made two changes to his side for this afternoon’s clash with Barnsley. Ben Cabango and Yan Dhanda return to the starting line-up to take on the Tykes in place of Kyle Naughton and Korey Smith. Naughton misses out through injury, while Smith drops to the bench. Freddie Woodman is in goal, with Cabango joining Marc Guehi and Ryan Bennett in the Swansea defence. Connor Roberts and Jake Bidwell are the wing-backs, with captain Matt Grimes partnering Jay Fulton in midfield. Dhanda takes the number 10 role, while Jamal Lowe and Andre Ayew start in attack. Swansea City: Freddie Woodman; Ben Cabango, Ryan Bennett, Marc Guehi; Connor Roberts, Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes (captain), Jake Bidwell; Yan Dhanda; Jamal Lowe, Andre Ayew. Substitutes: Steven Benda, Ryan Manning, Korey Smith, Viktor Gyokeres, Wayne Routledge, Liam Cullen, Joel Latibeaudiere, Oli Cooper, Kasey Palmer. Referee: Andy Davies
