please log in to view this image ............................................... please log in to view this image Swansea City................................... vs ...................... Bolton Wanderers Liberty Stadium Swansea Sat 29-10-11 15:00 PM KO For travel info/info on the stadium click HERE For links to watch the game online, click HERE I will be giving my thoughts on the game shortly after full time at http://sportstonightlive.com/ Welcome one and all to the match thread for the game between Swansea and Bolton. Ahead of the season I'd predicted Owen Coyle's men to do well and improve on last seasons finish, but that's a long way off at the moment as they strive to play their way out of the bottom reaches of the Premiership after a fairly disastrous start to the campaign. The Swans, meanwhile, have adjusted to life at this level well enough so far, but know that they need to improve on their travels. At home though, Swansea have been impressive and Bolton will have to be on top form to come away with anything from this match. The last time the two teams met at Swansea City was nineteen years ago, back in December 1992, with Bolton Wanderers inflicting a narrow 1-2 defeat upon the Swans in an (old) Division Two match. The Match; Bolton come into the match after successive losses to Arsenal away (League cup) and Sunderland at home (PL). Before these games they triumphed 3-1 away at Wigan, their first points in the league since the opening day. Without doubt, every game that passes heaps more and more pressure on a club who've perhaps grown to believe they shouldn't be involved in a relegation dog-fight any more. Swansea, last time out, capitulated away at Wolves. 2-0 up with less than 10 minutes to go, and seemingly cruising, they contrived to gift two goals to Wolves and surrender two precious points. Whether the collapse was the fault of players, fitness, or bad substitutions and decision making on Brendan's part is up for debate, but one thing is for sure and that is that the Swans cannot afford to throw away leads like that if they are serious about staying in this league. Prior Form; (most recent at top) Wolves 2 - 2 Swansea Premier League Norwich 3 - 1 Swansea City Premier League Swansea City 2 -0 Stoke Premier League Chelsea 4 - 1 Swansea City Premier League Swansea City 3 -0 West Brom Premier League Arsenal 2 - 1 Bolton League Cup Bolton 0 - 2 Sunderland Premier League Wigan 1 - 3 Bolton Premier League Bolton 1 - 5 Chelsea Premier League Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton Premier League Team News; For Swansea, Stephen Dobbie remains sidelined alongside Alan Tate and Ferrie Bodde, while Craig Beattie has departed for Watford on loan. Garry Monk is, as he's said himself, approaching full fitness so this is good news, while the Swans have also been boosted by the return to training of Steven Caulker, who is targeting the game with Manchester United for a return after hurting knee ligaments. For Bolton, Dedryck Boyata looks likely to miss out after being ruled out for 6 weeks with ankle ligament damage, while Tyrone Mears, Chung-Yong Lee, Stuart Holden, Steve Davis, and ex Swan Sam Ricketts all remain sidelined. Darren Pratley impressed early on against Arsenal and, as he's been involved in 12 of Bolton's games so far, he'll hope to be involved at the Liberty. Trivia; Completely guessed lineups; Swansea Vorm Rangel Taylor Williams Monk Britton Gower Allen Sinclair Dyer Graham Bolton Jaaskelainen Robinson Steinsson Cahill Wheater Eagles Petrov Reo-Coker Pratley Davies Ngog Key Battles; Leon Britton vs Darren Pratley Now, I know the Swans play three central midfielders, but Gower and Joey are both a bit more "enterprising", shall we say, than Leon, so if Pratters is at the head of the Bolton midfield diamond then I'd expect Leon to be the guy looking to halt him, more often than not. These players will know each other as well as it's possible to know somebody else's game, so it'll be an intriguing match up, especially considering the polar opposite styles of play they possess. Brendan Rodgers talking to Talksport ahead of the game; http://www.talksport.co.uk/radio/sp...ton?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Gary Cahill before the game; Analysis; So, the Swans welcome back Darren Pratley in his first return since leaving in the summer. Brendan has called for a good reception for the midfield dynamo, and it's justified. Pratters ran himself into the ground for us at every time of asking, and anything less than an excellent reception would be both a travesty and an insult to him. On to the game, then. Bolton arrive boasting their worst run of form in, quite probably, years. Only 2 wins in the league so far, and one of them was an opening day victory at the Swans fellow promotees QPR, leaves them looking up the table at teams they didn't expect to find above them. While they do have injury problems, Owen Coyle is an excellent manager who is building a team full of both grit and style. In midfield, the engine is clearly Reo-Coker and Pratley, but when combined with Chris Eagles and Martin Petrov you have a nice balance of flair and steel. In defence, too, there's quality. The much lauded Gary Cahill will line up alongside David Wheater, and you'd have thought this pairing would have meant good things for Bolton. So far, that's not been the case, possibly with the speculation over Cahill in the summer affecting his form so far. Up front, Bolton look likely to go with ex-Liverpool striker David N'Gog and the perrenial pain in the arse that is Kevin Davies. Davies has already cemented his place in the top 5 "most fouls committed by", and he's unlikely to move down that list for the rest of the season. Ashley Williams and Garry Monk will have to be both clever and committed to keep him at bay for the full 90 minutes plus. As I alluded to before the Wolverhampton game, the oppositions best chance of shutting the Swans down is to press us high up the field and restrict our centre-backs chances of retaining possession. Granted, it's only the very top teams who can keep this up for the full 90 minutes, but Norwich showed that if you do that then you can successfully stop us playing. Wolves didn't heed this warning, and gave us all the time in the world to knock the ball around, the end result was they were 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go before they actually got going. The Swans will play as they normally do. As we play more games, so the players confidence in their abilities will increase, and I expect us to get better and better. Dyer, Sinclair, Allen and Graham are all on a learning curve which shows no sign of abating just yet, but Brendan needs to learn from tactical errors in the past just as the players learn from making mistakes on the field. If we can heed the warning Wolves gave us, then the two points dropped at Molineux may turn out to be less important than the lessons we learned in that last 10 minutes. Iechyd Da. Scott Scottswan's famously biased, ill-fated and banned prediction; Swansea 3 - 0 Bolton
Nice one Scott. Bolton are in a mess for sure but Coyle would have told his players they can, and must win this one so they are not going to roll over. That said, we are like a different team at home and I think we'll win. I liked Pratley but was pissed off that he left us by spitting the dummy because he wasn't offered a contract sooner and didn't feel 'wanted'. Bless him. Going for a non-footballing reason was dead wrong and showed a lack of judgment on his part imo. I've nothing against Bolton and have fond memories of us both playing in the lower divisions, but for the Pratley situation alone I hope we remind him what a mistake he's made on Saturday. 2-0 Swans.
Bolton will be up for this match,and if there is any sign of home team complacency,we could be in for a shock. There are NO easy games in this League,and each one should be viewed as a cup final.
Wompin thread Scotty. I think the main player to worry about, if he plays, is Kevin Davies. Not been great this season yet, but when he plays, like Scott said, he is not shy of giving away free kicks. When we have the ball, he will press our midfield, and in particular Leon, because it's obvious that everything goes through him. I think if he doesn't play, we will control the game and that will give us the best chance of winning the game. However, in attack, Owen Coyles passing approach has left Kevin Davies redundant at times this year, and so if their biggest attacking threat is N'Gog, I'm not too concerned about us conceding. If we close down Petrov and Eagles early, because with a run on the ball they can both hurt teams, I can't see them getting anything from this game. I think your prediction is spot on Scott. 3-0 for me too (unless Moras plays, then I think we will win 3-1)
Swap Petrov and Pratley around and you have the proper line up. Probably. Good thread by the way, hope none of us get thrashed and it actually turns out to be a good encounter for the three points.
very even match that could go either way and as we are at home i think or should i say hope we scrape home 2-1..
I'm looking forward to this, just gutted I couldn't get a ticket! Come on the Swans. Danny Graham to make it 4 in 4? Vorm to make it 5 clean sheets out of 5 at home?
Does anybody have good video stream links. The match is not being televised over here - first missed game of the season.
I'll post some links when they appear online, Yankee. Keep checking back, as I'll be watching it online myself so any good streams will end up in here I'm sure.
Top notch effort again Scott . This game is going to be interesting, another tough home game, as they are all going to be. Of their last 14 games, excluding mid week they have, I believe, won 2 & lost 12. So this looks like it could end up a draw. All the games now are going to be hard & furious. Bolton need to win to start climbing the table. We need to win to stay away from the bottom & garner some more points. All that might add up to a draw. I`ve gone 2 - 1 to the Swans, hope I`m right otherwise we could start a downward spiral. Here`s to a good game & safe travel to all visitors.
If we win Bolton will be 6 points (at least) behind all three promoted clubs! Not a good place to be over a quarter of the way into the season. Also, anyone notice we've got the same away record as Arsenal thus far (albeit not scoring as many goals). We've probably had harder games too! Can't be that bad...
where does one find all these streams (not that i need them as all Swans matches here are on foxtel)? just curious
Dyer is gonna tear Paul Robinson apart. I even think Dyer is gonna score this week. i'd be very, very surprised if he doesn't get motm
