[themaclad]

Swansea City
Swansea.com Stadium 17/8/2024 15.00 hrs

MACS VIEW

Never usually get anything when we play here , once remember taking a point at the Old Vetch Field in a 2 all draw 14/9/1991, the postponed game in 1993 still makes me laugh manically, 15 minutes before kick off. Last time I remember going to the first away game of the season at this venue lost 4-0 under Ferguson, got relegated that season.
Anybodies guess who Marsh will pick.
Finally the last time we arrived was just before Christmas lost 2-1 the steward on the coach that day was Janet McDonald, sadly Janet died this week RIP

https://www.swanseacity.com/

MANAGER



Luke Williams (born 1 May 1981) is an English professional football manager who is the head coach of Championship club Swansea City.

Born in London, Williams played youth football but suffered an injury at age 19, which stopped him from playing professionally. He began his coaching career at Leyton Orient and West Ham United. He spent several years coaching Brighton & Hove Albion's under-21s and made his first-team managerial debut with Swindon Town in 2015. After coaching Bristol City's under-23s, Williams became the assistant coach to Russell Martin at Milton Keynes Dons in 2019 and Swansea City in 2021.

Williams was appointed head coach of Notts County in 2022, leading them to Football League promotion in his first season and breaking several club records, including the most wins and points in a season.[2] In 2024, he returned to Swansea City as head coach.

IN AND OUT



LAST TIME OUT



LOST 1-0 at MIDDLESBROUGH

OTHER FIXTURES



PREVIOUS



OFFICIALS

Stephen Martin will have the whistle when Swansea City host Preston North End at the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday (3pm).

Staffordshire-born Martin - whose father and grandfather officiated in the Football League - first took up refereeing in 2002 and had made it to step five of the football pyramid within six years.

He joined the National List of Referees ahead of the 2012-13 season and took charge of his first Championship match in January of that campaign. In 2015, he was included in the list of Select Group 2 officials.

This will be the 15th time he has taken charge of a Swans games. 12 of the previous contests were league matches and the most recent of these was the Swans victory at Blackburn last season.

On Saturday he will be assisted by Mark Dwyer and Carl Fitch-Jackson. Tom Reeves will be the fourth official.

Things to do

Usually wander around the ground and neighbouring retail park for the sheer hell of it

Still cannot believe the first time I went to this particular venue I missed this

The Landore viaduct is a railway viaduct over the Swansea valley and the River Tawe at Landore in south Wales. It provides a link between Swansea city center and the West Wales Line to the South Wales Main Line. The valley crossing provides a panoramic view of Landore, Kilvey Hill, the Liberty Stadium and the Swansea Enterprise Park.

The Landore viaduct was constructed as a key element of the West Wales Line during the late 1840s. The structure, which has a length of 536-metre (1,759 ft), was originally designed by the famed engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and incorporated a diverse range of structural design elements and was primarily constructed out of timber. It was officially opened to traffic in 1850. The structure was first updated in 1889, using wrought-iron for the central span. Between 1978 and 1979, the majority of the viaduct was re-decked using steel beams. The structure remains in use to the current day.

[themaclad]

Interim manager Mike Marsh will be heading back to familiar surroundings this weekend when he takes North End to Swansea.

Marshy spent a couple of years working under Steve Cooper with the Swans and very nearly helped take them to the Premier League.

This Saturday, though, he’ll be at the top of the away dugout as he continues his reign as interim boss, following the departure of Ryan Lowe.

Watch Marshy's Interview Here
Marshy said: “It was a great period of my life. I had two years living down at Swansea. It’s a lovely place to live with some great people. I really enjoyed it. I look back on it with real fondness.

“We’re going there for three points. It’s always better when you beat someone you love, isn’t it? It’s like when you’re playing against your brother, it’s always that little bit sweeter when you can get a victory over someone you’re really fond of. If we can go there and get three points, it’ll be great.

“They’ve got a lot of very good players. I think the style’s stayed pretty much the same, they still want to play football and take a lot of risks. I’m sensing an opportunity that we can go there and if we’re at our best I think we can give ourselves a chance.”

Luke Williams’ Swansea City began the 2024/25 campaign with a defeat on the road against Middlesbrough, before securing a safe passage into the second round of the Carabao Cup thanks to a win over Gillingham.


North End also came out on top in round one in Marshy’s first game in charge, and he then brought the team into training on Wednesday – a scheduled day off – for more valuable time on the training pitch.

He said: “I think it was important because we’ve had a change around. It’s an opportunity to get the lads in who didn’t play on Tuesday night. The lads who played recovered and the lads who didn’t, trained.

“There’s been a couple of subtle changes but football’s football. You can’t reinvent the wheel. We’re just trying to do things in a slightly different way just to freshen it up for the players.”

The interim boss confirmed that Ali McCann would still be sidelined, although the midfielder will return to training on Monday. It’s imagined he may be a couple of weeks away from being in contention.


Jeppe Okkels – who joined the club earlier this week – has spent the past few days on the training pitch, and will be available for selection.

Marshy said: “We saw him yesterday and we’ve seen him today. I think it’s taken him by surprise the intensity of training.

“He’s obviously come from a different league. He hasn’t done much training the last few days and he’s had the pressure of a move abroad.

“I think he just needs to catch his breath. He’s travelling with us, whether he’s included time will tell.”

[themaclad]

The Fitness Test

Mike Marsh said in his pre-match interview that everyone was available for selection, other than midfielder Ali McCann who is due to return to training on Monday.

Jeppe Okkels is in contention to make his North End debut in this fixture, although Marshy admitted he's been slightly fatigued after travelling to sign and joining up with the team.

There will be keen interest in what formation PNE line up in come 3pm, with the interim boss having switched to a four at the back in-game on Tuesday night, in the victory over Sunderland.

The Swans

Swansea City got their season underway last weekend with a defeat on the road against Middlesbrough, before they progressed to the second round of the Carabao Cup thanks to a 3-1 victory over Gillingham.

In their first full season under Luke Williams, who was appointed in January, the Swans will be hoping to improve on their 14th-placed finish in 2023/24.

They’ve strengthened over the summer and handed debuts to four summer signings in their first match of the campaign, including South Korea international Eom Ji-sung.

[themaclad]

Swansea City 3 Grimes, Abdulai, Vipotnik Preston North End 0
Swansea City line-up: Vigouroux; Key (Naughton, 65), Cabango, Darling, Tymon (Tjoe-A-On, 88); Franco (Fulton, 65), Grimes; Eom (Abdulai, 57), Cooper, Ronald; Cullen (Vipotnik, 66). Subs not used: Broome, Pederson, Watts, Thomas.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Potts, Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Whiteman; Frøkjær (Holmes, 72), Thórdarson, Ledson (Okkels, 64), Brady (Greenwood, 64), Riis (Osmajić, 64). Subs not used: Cornell, Whatmough, Keane, Bauer, Kesler-Hayden.

Attendance: 14,037 (393 PNE fans).

Referee: Mr S Martin.

Where do you start with this, Seven straight defeats, no goals scored in seven games(630 minutes) two managers gone in two weeks and in the last 20 minutes they could have replaced the entire outfield team with bollards who probably would have done a better job.
Thing about this one, we should have scored before Lindsay's brain freeze could have been level we had one brilliantly blocked which was going in and their second was deflected again, but we gave up. Booed off agai staggering shambles at the moment.
For the third time in 16 months Swansea away a total of 30 plus hours on a coach, although this was the first day game in those three.

Two previous defeats 4-2, 2-1 this was the worse of the lot, arrived early enugh for the trip round the retail park, must be a Swansea tradition of people trying and failing to put wood or plaster board pieces into the boot of their car. Ice cream was the highlight of the entire day.
Only one change from the win over Sunderland on Tuesday, well battered in the first 20 minutes both wingers Ronald and the impressive Eom were running riot, athough personally thought they actually didn't look like scoring.
We had a bit of play and should have scored when Brady played in by Riis fired straight at the keeper.

City took the lead from the spot Grimes easily scored Woodman didn't move, the penalty is one of these footballer's do the funniest things moment, Eom looked to have run the all out of play but crossed Lindsay for some reason only known to himself put his hand up as if to leave the room ball struck hiss arm, penalty, why it took so long to give was a mystery.
Started slightly better probably should have had a penalty when Darling handled, unlucky not to level when Ledson's poewerful effort was blocked when goal bound and that was it.
City's second shot hit Abdulai and went in, Woodman looked to have covered the original effort.
After that we gave up, spent the last 20 minutes waiting for City to add more goals which they did probably best goal of the game, Swans scythed through the non existent defence and Vipotnik scored from close range
Tremendous day out home at 11 pm, Marsh departed the club almost immediately after the final whistle utterly clueless.

Head coach Luke Williams felt his Swansea City side had taken a good step forward after opening their Championship account for the season with a 3-0 win over Preston North End at the Swansea.com Stadium.

Matt Grimes, Azeem Abdulai and Žan Vipotnik were on the scoresheet, while the Swans also kept a first clean sheet of the campaign.

Swansea had over 60 per cent of the ball, racking up 12 attempts on goal and six shots on target, and Williams was pleased with how they had backed up the positives from the midweek Carabao Cup win over Gillingham.

“It does not get a lot better than that, to be honest with you,” he said.

“To have three goals and a clean sheet, you can’t really complain. So we are happy with our day’s work today.

“We took a lot of lessons from that performance on Tuesday evening, and I think you could see a lot of the same things were evident again today.

“It was very pleasing, and we have a long way to go to be the team we want to be but there are a couple of good markers there and we have to maintain those levels as a minimum.

“We put a lot of work into the opposition during that first 45 minutes, and it became more difficult for them to shut those spaces down as the game went on.

“I actually thought they started the second half brilliantly well, and they threw a lot at us, but as the game wore on it became more our type of game and we find those spaces.

“We had that flair on the outside of the pitch, the full-backs were able to join in, but we also looked like we could penetrate through the middle of the pitch and we want to add that to our game steadily.”

Ben Whiteman stressed the importance of the squad sticking together following a difficult start to the campaign.

North End were beaten 3-0 at Swansea City and it was confirmed after the game that Mike Marsh – who was in interim charge following Ryan Lowe’s departure – would be leaving the club.

Ben, who became captain in the summer, provided post-match reaction after the defeat in South Wales.

He said: “It’s been a bit of a surreal start if we’re all being honest. It’s been really strange, but us lads have got to stick together.

“At the end of the day the main thing is the dressing room in there. We have got to stick together.

“There’s a large proportion of the season left so we’ve got to pick up results and I’m sure we’ll do that.”

In the defeat to Swansea, PNE fell behind late in the first half as Matt Grimes scored from the penalty spot, and Azeem Abdulai and Žan Vipotnik extended their advantage in the second half.

North End had big chances themselves on the day, falling to the likes of Robbie Brady and Ryan Ledson, but they were denied by the Swansea defence.

Ben said: “The result is nowhere near good enough. If you look at the goals as well they’re nowhere near good enough from us.

“We had a few chances, could we have stuck them away? It probably would have been a different game. As I mentioned before, nowhere good enough.

“They’re really, really poor goals on our behalf. We’ve had a few chances, but it wasn’t to be today and we’ve got to dust ourselves down and go again because it’s getting to crunch time.”

Just short of 400 supporters made the long journey to South Wales to cheer on their team in the first away day of the 2024/25 season.

Ben said: “Outstanding. They spend their hard-earned money obviously watching that so we understand the frustration.

“We’re not blind to that, we understand it, and it’s up to us to sort it out for them.”

[themaclad]