In a bizarre arrangement, Swansea City played two back to back friendly games on Saturday against local Welsh Premier League sides. First up was a visit to The Gnoll, home of Lee Trundle’s Neath, before heading down to Michael Sheen’s club, Port Talbot Town. As always Abi Davies and Mark Pitman were on hand to give contrasting views on the afternoon’s festivities. First up is Abi with the events at The Gnoll.
Neath 1 Swansea City 0 – The Gnoll – Saturday 16th July 2011
Swansea City continued their preparations ahead of their début season in the Premier League with back to back friendlies against Welsh Premier League sides Neath and Port Talbot. Brendan Rodgers named equally strong sides for both games with a mixture of first team and youth players featuring.
Steven Caulker also made his Swans debut against Neath two weeks after agreeing to join the newly promoted Welsh side on a season long loan.
Neath’s starting line up included five former Swans – most notably Lee Trundle, who still remains a firm favourite among Swans fans.
From the outset, it was evident that Neath wanted to provide a pre-season upset as the home side were quick to test the Swans back line. With ex-Swan Kerry Morgan troubling Zola out wide, earning the home side their first free kick less than 5 minutes into the game. Although the set piece amounted to nothing, further chances came for The Eagles as they used both wings effectively with Kerry Morgan, Chris Jones and Lee Trundle posing Neath’s biggest threat.
Swansea showed glimpses of quality in a pretty lacklustre first half. Ryan Harley came close for The Swans with an effort that drilled across the face of goal.
Nathan Dyer and Danny Graham should both play large parts in the up and coming season, and it was a movement involving the two that saw Swansea create their next chance as Dyer played Graham through, only for his shot to fire just wide of the target.
Graham looked promising, with a great work ethic as well as his ability in front of goal I feel he and Stephen Dobbie will create a great partnership next season.
Following a sublime season in The Championship, Nathan Dyer was the stand out player for Swansea in the first half as he demonstrated his blistering pace and trickery on a number of occasions, however The Eagles defence remained solid as Brendan Rodgers side failed to show any real conviction in the final third.
Neath continued to press for a goal with a long range effort from Lee Trundle forcing a great save from The Swans keeper.
Mark Pitman takes up the story from the second half and onto Port Talbot Town.
Pedantic officiating from referee Harrington had played a part in the deteriorating contest but on 44 minutes he adjudged that Ryan Harley had handled the ball in the Swansea City area and Neath were awarded a penalty. Former Swan Chris Jones stepped-up against German trialist goalkeeper Thorsten Stuckmann and drilled the ball down the middle of the goal to hand his side the lead at half-time. Mini-football with teams of local youngsters took to the field at the break as the much-worn Now! album used by the club had its latest airing while food trade at the Gnoll resembled that of the local Tesco as hundreds of white and orange replica shirts queued for a midday snack.
Neath held on for the victory to offer the Welsh Premier League club a morale-boost after their early European exit while the Swansea City fans in attendance were left justifiably concerned about their upcoming trip to the Etihad Stadium as much as their impending trip to Port Talbot’s GenQuip Stadium. The Dutch influence on the clubs orange kit had done little to inspire the side but manager Brendan Rodgers will not have been concerned by his sides defeat as he made the short journey to his sides second friendly of the afternoon.
Port Talbot Town 1-3 Swansea City – The GenQuip Stadium – Saturday 16th July 2011
While their team-mates were suffering a surprise defeat at Neath, the other half of Rodgers; squad were warming up in the bright sunshine of Port Talbot’s GenQuip Stadium. By half-past two a number of Swansea City fans were arriving to take in their second game of the day and with it take a first look at goalkeeper Jose Moreira, a recent signing from Benfica, and also to welcome back from injury influential midfielder Ferrie Bodde. Like The Gnoll, the playing surface at The GenQuip Stadium was in tremendous condition as Port Talbot Town held a guard of honour for the visitors to enter the field, and the heavy rain clouds that had a been a concern for the club on the morning of the match passed to make way for bright sunshine.
Swansea City took the lead inside the opening 15 minutes as Ferrie Bodde showed the fans in attendance that his injury had not affected his game as he threaded the ball through for striker Craig Beattie to finish past goalkeeper Kristian Rogers. It would be Bodde’s last contribution however as he left the field following the re-start. Fears of a re-occurrence of the injury that had blighted his career would later prove unfounded as his exit was only one of precaution having he felt a tightening of his hamstring after an intensive week of training.
In a more open and entertaining game than the earlier event at The Gnoll, Swansea City maintained possession for long periods and hit the post through Lee Lucas on 25 minutes. Casey Thomas, who had been on-loan at Port Talbot Town last season, was influential on the left and caused his former team-mates a number of problems with his pace and ability. Beattie had a second goal ruled out for offside before Angel Rangel doubled the lead after he combined with Beattie and finished in style to leave the fans happy as they headed for the bar at the break.
Like the match at Neath earlier in the day, the second-half saw a number of changes take place and it was Port Talbot Town who would start the better of the two sides from the re-start. David Cornell, another former Port Talbot Town loanee, was now in goal for Swansea City but one of his early touches of the ball would be to pick it out of the back of the net after striker Martin Rose had reduced the deficit with a deflected near-post effort. Like Bodde, Rose was also coming back after a long-injury and his return offered the ’1901 Ultras’, the clubs fans, a major boost as they out-sang and out-trumpeted the visiting supporters despite being heavily outnumbered.
Both Neath and Port Talbot Town have enjoyed strong links with Swansea City over the last few seasons and the Premier League club have remained loyal to them despite their elevated status. Swansea could have arranged far more lucrative games than a double-visit to two of their local Welsh Premier League clubs but their efforts are appreciated by both clubs and by the fans who were able to see them in action when tickets to their Premier League fixtures will be scarce. The three clubs will now move their separate ways as they prepare for the new season but all three will be pleased with what turned out to be a constructive afternoon in South Wales.
Mark Pitman
More pictures from both games can be found here.
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