Planet Swans ArchivesCotterill’s goal was the undoubted high point of a first half that saw Swansea lose both Darren Pratley and, once again, Ferrie Bodde to injury forcing a reshuffle in the starting midfield.
The replacing of Pratley almost seemed to be precautionary despite him immediately signalling to the bench he was in trouble whilst the injury to Bodde will certainly have alarm bells ringing in the Swans support. Having just lasted 8 minutes into his last start for the team, this time it was a 29 minute appearance before he went down before immediately leaving the field and heading down the tunnel to re-emerge later sporting yet another set of crutches.
Adding to a midfield injury list that already includes Andrea Orlandi, Jordi Lopez and Joe Allen and it is mounting into a pretty big headache for Paulo Sousa despite what was a very encouraging performance in the middle from Mark Gower who replaced Pratley.
Thankfully by the time either were replaced the Swans were already a goal to the good thanks to Cotterill’s penalty but the changes – as you would expect – did disrupt their fluency before a much improved second half performance saw them unlucky not to add to their goal tally.
The swans lined up as follows
De Vries
Rangel Tate Williams Richards
Dyer Pratley Britton Bodde Cotterill
Kuqi
The sight of Ferrie Bodde in a Swans shirt is always a good one and he almost carved out the opening goal when he found Kuqi on the edge of the box and watched the Finn turn and hit a sharp shot that was turned around the post by the keeper. Bodde himself then found himself with a sighter on goal and forced the keeper into action as the Swans looked to open the scoring.
Even at the early stage of the game it looked as if it was just a matter of if the goal would come rather than when and it was Cotterill who was at the heart of it when it did arrive. Pratley was off the pitch receiving treatment when Peterborough gave the ball away to Cotterill who was bundled down in the box leaving the referee with the decision of pointing to the spot. Cotterill stepped up himself and despatched the perfect penalty into the bottom corner to give the Swans the lead.
Pratley was replaced by Gower and it did seem as if it was to be more of the same as the Swans continued to dominate possession and looked ready to break down a poor looking Peterborough side at will. That was before the injury to Bodde which meant the introduction of Trundle, initially into the midfield.
The remainder of the first half was scrappy although both Kuqi and Dyer can consider themselves unlucky not to double the advantage.
Swansea regrouped at half time and most certainly can count themselves unlucky in the second half thanks to a string of good saves by the Peterborough keeper and some desperate blocks – many of them seeming to come from the boot of Trundle.
The gaps were appearing and the Swans were looking to exploit them although at one nil you always have that nagging doubt that there could be en undeserved equaliser around the corner and maybe Peterborough should have done better with a free header but that aside they never really seriously seemed to threaten the De Vries guarded goal.
At the other end, Kuqi, Dyer and Gower were all coming close along with several Trundle chances but there was to be no further breakthrough and yet again it was 1-0 to the Swansea Jacks as the final scoreline.
However, 1-0 remains enough to win the game and take three points home and the Swans hold on 4th place remains strong ahead of a trip to 3rd place Nottingham Forest next week.
SOUSA BARMY ARMY!
