Swansea City’s remarkable 5-4 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday could prove to be the defining moment of a season where for the large part they have struggled desperately, and the prospect of relegation has reared its ugly head prematurely . The scoring sequence between the two teams needs to be seen to be believed:
0-1 Palace (Zaha,19)
1-1 (Sugurdsson, 36)
2-1 Swans (Fer, 66)
3-1 (Fer, 68)
3-2 Swans (Tomkins, 75)
3-3 (Cork, own goal 82)
3-4 Palace (Benteke, 84)
4-4 (Llorente, 90+1)
5-4 Swans (Llorente, 90 +3)
The teams shared the spoils in the first half scoring a goal apiece. Zaha shrugged off two Swans defenders to plant the ball in the corner of the net, and Sigurdsson equalized with a sublime free kick as only he can.
Sixty six minutes had elapsed and the game had the hallmarks of two struggling teams going through the motions settling for a point apiece. However, Bob Bradley decided to replace Wayne Rutledge with much maligned Spanish striker, Llorente and suddenly all hell broke loose.
Sigurdsson was involved in all four goals in the second half because they came from his set pieces. From a Sigurdsson corner, substitute Llorente flicked the ball into the goal mouth and Leroy Fer stabbed the ball home from close range. Two minutes later, Fer scored an almost identical goal and the Swans were suddenly and remarkably leading 3-1.
One could only assume with a two goal lead and only 22 minutes remaining the Swans would coast home and achieve only their second win of the season. However alarm bells began ringing in my head when Mo Barrow was substituted for veteran full back, Rangel to seemingly bolster the defense. You know the old maxim, “What we have, we hold.”
Palace put paid to “Plan A” by getting one back in the 75th minute from an innocuous corner, and the ball was bundled in the back of the net. In the space of nine minutes Palace scored three goals to turn the game on its head. The second came from a routine cross by Zaha which glanced off Jack Cork’s head into the roof the net from twenty yards away. In the 84th minute, the Swans hanging on desperately for a point, again failed to clear their lines and Benteke poked the ball into the net from all of 5 yards. Indeed, six of the goals scored in the second half were from within the six yard box.
I could not believe what I was seeing, and convinced that the team had no hope in hell in coming back, I turned my television off in disgust and despair. How could a team surrender a two goal lead and be trailing 3-4 within the space of 16 minutes? Quite simply, the Swans’ defense is diabolical. Schoolboys would be embarrassed to concede the soft goals given up by their senior counterparts.
About an hour later, I went to the internet to confirm the result, and to my shock and awe, the Swans had pulled victory from the jaws of defeat. Another cliché, but what does it matter. Llorente was obviously encouraged by his assist for Fer’s goal, and miraculously conjured up two poacher’s goals in injury time to win the game for the Swans.
Could this prove to be the turning point of the Swans’ season? It could very well provide a spring board to better times, and inject much needed confidence into a squad of players bereft of ideas, ability and nous. Let’s not be under any false illusions here, and I refrain from using another cliché; one swallow doesn’t make a summer. The defense is woeful, and in clear need of a strong commanding experienced central defender. Didn’t Ashley Williams, prematurely sold to Everton, fit the bill in all those categories?
It was an extraordinary game and not for the faint hearted. Yes, the players and management should take heart from this result, but at the same time they must remind themselves every minute of every day that a great deal of work needs to be done to improve on Saturday’s performance, no matter how heroic or exciting, if they are to avoid relegation. In Sigurdsson we trust, a truly class act worthy of a bigger stage.