Swansea v Sheff Wed Competition - Sky Bet Championship Venue - Swansea.com Stadium Date - 23 September 2023 Kick off - 3:00pm Following their midweek draw away at QPR, next up for Michael Duff’s stuttering Swansea squad is a home match against fellow strugglers Sheffield Wednesday. With respect to the increasingly beleagured Duff, words such as ‘saloon’, ‘chance’ and ‘last’ readily spring to mind. Defeat to the Owls will undoubtedly see the Jack Army loudly expressing their opinion as to what they believe has to happen. Will Duff be able to improve results on the park and - equally importantly in some respects - change the view that the majority of supporters have with regards his suitability for the job? Time will tell - and that time could be as short as the 90 minutes tomorrow afternoon. Last Tuesday evening, Lyndon Dykes' injury-time equaliser for QPR condemned the Swans to their worst start to a league season for 32 years. Swans boss Michael Duff thought that Josh Ginnelly's early deflected goal was the stroke of luck his team so desperately needed after six games without a win. However, the hosts dominated the second half before substitute Dykes headed in Ilias Chair's cross in the third minute of stoppage time to salvage a draw. Swansea finished with 10 men after Ollie Cooper was shown two yellow cards in the space of a minute in added time. The draw lifted QPR to 17th whilst the Swans remained in 22nd position. The same evening, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough remained rooted in the Championship relegation zone after sharing the spoils at Hillsborough. After an early stoppage due to home fans throwing tennis balls onto the pitch in protest at their ownership, Wednesday took the lead when Anthony Musaba fired in from seven yards. Darragh Lenihan levelled shortly after half-time, turning home a corner, and, from there, the visitors began to take control. Boro's Matt Crooks had a goal disallowed for offside as the visitors had the better of the second period although ex-Swan George Byers missed a good late chance for Wednesday. Both teams have just two points apiece after seven games with Wednesday above bottom side Boro by virtue of the Owls' superior goal difference. The Swans first played the Owls in 1925 and in the 35 matches that have taken place between the 2 sides, the Swans have won 9, lost 13 and drawn 13. The teams last met in the Championship in Swansea 3 years ago with the match ending in a 1-1 draw, with Ayew netting a second half equaliser for Steve Cooper’s team. Cumbria born official Anthony Blackhouse has been appointed the referee for Saturday afternoon’s match. He will be taking charge of his very first Swans game, having only been promoted to the Select Group 2 list of officials for the start of the 2023/2024 season. Blackhouse will be assisted by Alex James and Adam Crysell, with Will Finnie the 4th Official. As I intimated earlier in this post, for very many people - fans, pundits and former players - this really is the last chance saloon for Michael Duff. Indeed, when the season started, who would have thought that the meeting between the 2 sides would be a relegation 6 pointer! If, as some believe, Duff has already lost (some or all of) the dressing room, how will the players react tomorrow? I for one, sincerely hope that they play for the badge - play for the fans - and do their very best. I think that the first goal in this game will be crucial - if we can score it, I think that we should be good enough to win. If Wednesday score first, I think that the Jack Army will begin to vent their feelings about the Manager and that could impact the team adversely. That said, I’m going for a 2-1 win for the Swans - with former Swan George Byers likely to play, it’s odd on that the Swans will have to score at least twice to win
This should be an opportunity to turn our fortunes around but after repeated capitulation I can't see any hope. We can surely scrap for a 0 - 0 though?
We scored a goal in mid-week which was clearly handball and should not have counted. I only see us scoring today via a penalty or an own goal. 0-0 wouldn't surprise me, or a 4-0 blip win.
You have to admit that beating a side 3-0 as poor as Sheffield are is very welcome, but my gut says this is a false flag, all I see is a league one side opposition, they are so bad, I actually feel sorry for Sheffield!.......
Absolutely. Unless a miraculous turnaround just happened this is only going to cloud issues and prolong the agony. Desperately needed three points all the same.
