Swans snatch the spoils in thriller
By Peegs
August 16 2003
The Robins chucked away 3 points in a game of 2 sectors. Cheltenham were on top for the first hour and took a 3-1 lead, they then fell apart in the final third of the game as Lee Trundle grabbed a hat trick including a last minute winner.

In a game kicking off 30 minutes late due to travel problems, there was one change to the team that started versus QPR in midweek, the injured Dave Bird replaced by the impressive looking Cozic, Mark Yates however started again in central midfield.

Infront of a large crowd including 1,300 from Wales. The referee got his red card out as early as the 4th minute when he sent Cyril the Swan to the stand for entering the field of play, he was punished again later in the half time interval when a young fan blasted the ball at his head!

The next corner after Cyril's sending off saw a scramble leading to John Brough driving the ball home but it was ruled out for offside, who was supposed to be off side I do not know!

Jamie Victory - who continues to under perform - made a poor clearance that let Swansea striker James Thomas in but his shot was blocked by the diving Steve Book.

Graham Fyfe who had a game off two halfs - good in the first, poor in the second - was causing the Swansea right back Lee Jenkins all sorts of problems early on and the Welshman had to blcok a shot from the young Scotsman, Fyfe was involved again moments later when a good cross just failed to reach the head of Odejayi.

The 2 big Ex Brizzle City strikers - Spencer and Odejayi - were heavily involved in the opening Cheltenham goal in the 17th minute. Spencer threaded a through ball to Odejayi, he latched on to the pass in the box, he shot but Murphy in the Swans goal saved, the ball ran free to Odejyi who laid it back to the on running Cozic who struck the ball past lots of bodies and into the right hand side of the goal to make it 1-0 to Cheltenham.

Things went from good to great for Cheltenham as Grant McCann hit home a scorcher from 20 yards. Athrow in by Mark Yates - he quite remarkably gets an assist! - came to McCann on the Cheltenham right hand side, he cut inside and beat his man before striking a curling shot which nestled inside the 'keeper's right hand post.

With 35 minutes on the clock the Robins frailties at the back were exposed by busy Swansea midfielder Martinez, the Spanish midfielder threaded a ball through Victory and Brough, Book was hideously slwo to move off his line and Thomas got to the ball first and fired it home to the delight off the Swansea fans and players, especially Trundle who should have been booked for his celebration infront of the C and G.

H/T 2-1

I think the scoreline was about right for the first 45 minutes, neither manager made a change at half time, however there was only 8 minutes on the 2nd half stopwatch when both managers made a change, Kevin Amankwaah replaced the ever trying but failing Antony Griffin on the right hand side and Kevin Nugent replaced the Swans scorer James Thomas.

Amankwaah who was playing in an attacking right sided role when he came on was putting in some probing crosses down the In2print side, one such cross found the forehead of Odejayi but his header drifted wide.

Amankwaah sent in another cross on the hour mark when he sent in another right wing cross, for some deranged reason Kristian O'Leary punched the ball clear and the ref (note not the linesman who had a clear view) pointed to the spot. Grant McCann stepped up and sent the ball low to the left and into the back of the net for his 3rd goal in a week. In the past week he has shown the form that convinced the Cheltenham board to spend £75k on him.

The Swansea fans (or in fairness fan) decided to throw a bottle onto the pitch, lets hope the idiot has been caught and banned from attending games at Whaddon Road in the future.

Cheltenham fans were still getting over the elation of taking a 2 goal lead when the defence went to sleep and let in Trundle for his first goal. Ex Cheltenham player Jonathan Coates sent Trundle clear on the left, he cut inside and striked the ball into the net past the diving Book.

Kayode Odejayi should have restored the 2 goal lead moments later when sent clear in the box by Spencer, he tried to place the ball in the bottom right hand corner of the C and G goal but Murphy managed to block the ball, this chance was crying out for a Bob Taylor type of striker to put it away, we will hear more on this transfer in the coming week.

Odejayi showed tremendous skill on 70 minutes with George Bestesque skill, he flipped the ball over Hylton and smashed the falling ball goalwards from 25 yards which went about 5 yards over, it would have been one of the goals of the season at this early stage.

Now step up Cheltenham to throw the game away, with 11 minutes left on the clock Swansea equalised. Martinez played the ball to ex Burnley player Maylett down the right, he passed the ball to Nugent who was given acres of space, he shot and Book saved but the ball ran free and the first man to react was Trundle who tapped the ball into an empty net.

The travelling fans from Wales were ecstatic having come from 2 goals down but things were about to get better for them as in the first minute of injury time they claimed a winner which was unfair on the Robins. A corner was headed down by Nugent to Trundle who was left to smash the ball past Book and into the net and give Swansea the 3 points and leave Cheltenham pointless in 22nd position.

In a nutshell when Gould reverted to 4-4-2 in the second half a defense of Amankwaah, M.Duff, Victory and Fyfe were horibly horribly exposed. Once again Yates tried hard but again was useless in the centre of midfield and Cozic failed as the game went on. Spencer and Odejayi combined well upfront but lacked the finishing product that perhaps a Bob Taylor may offer us. Hull away next weekend and I have a horrible feeling we will still have 0 points after 3 games.

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F/T 3-4

CHELTENHAM TOWN: Book, Grifin (Amankwaah 53), Brough (Devaney 70), M.Duff, Victory, Fyfe, Yates, McCann, Cozic (Cleverley 80), Odejayi, Spencer

SWANSEA CITY: Murphy, Jenkins (Jones 82), O'Leary, Johnrose, Hylton, Maylett, Britton, Martinez, Coates (Robinson 72), Thomas (Nugent 53), Trundle

Attendance 4,660

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