Darryl Duffy...Not The Best Start

After the failures of both Rory Fallon and Pawel Abbott at the Liberty Stadium, Darryl Duffy's arrival on loan from Hull City was like a breath of fresh air near the end of last season.

We were in desperate need of a quality partner for Trundle and Duffy quickly proved that he was the man to play that role, even if it was for a limited time.

He even outshone the popular scouser during his stay here. He scored 5 goals in as many games and became an instant favourite amongst the fans from March until May 2007.

Lee Trundle scored 4 goals in 7 games during Duffy's spell here and they complimented each other brilliantly. They gelled instantly and it was a huge shame that that partnership had to break up when Trundle left to join Bristol City for a £1million fee. Otherwise, I think along with Leeds' Beckford and Kandol, I think we would have had the best strikeforce in the League.

Still, fans were nearly begging Roberto Martinez to sign Duffy permenantly and we finally did after an on-going saga. The Tigers chairman wanted a ridiculous £500,000 for Duffy - double what they paid Falkirk for him.

Jason Scotland then joined and Swans fans were confident in our strikeforce. Duffy had already proven his consistent goalscoring record for us and Scotland has had one whichever club he's played for.

However, the strike partnership has hardly hit off. They are both quite similar in the way they play. Both rely on a support striker to feed them the ball. Duffy does well running through on goal off the shoulder of a defender and Scotland has the ability to finish from anywhere inside the penalty area when given the chance.

Duffy seems to be a player that won't be involved in a game at all but will score a lot of goals. So far that's exactly what he's been like minus the goals. He hasn't been given many chances to score while Scotland has done well to hit 6 so far this season. He has a more all-round game which has helped him to score his goals this year.

It's a huge dissapointment to see a lack of goals from Duffy of course but hopefully he can adapt to his new strike partner.

You can't say it's been a bad signing, it's way too early for that anyway. We all wanted to see him here permenantly and we were expecting him to continue his excellent partnership with Lee Trundle. That didn't happen but he has the ability to score 20 goals this season if he can gel with Jason Scotland.

He'll have to be quick about it though as loanee Warren Feeney is knocking on the door for a starting place.

It's easy to register for Vital Swansea, simply click the link and enjoy getting involved (you can even win prizes!)

Message Board

To visit the Vital Swansea message board, click here.

Get involved

This website is your website and we are looking for people to help run the site. Do you go to most of the games and have an opinion? Why not write a match report? Perhaps you are a budding journalist or even just someone who is very opinionated? Well why not join our team? If this interests you please contact Vital Swansea

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.

Join the Vital Fantasy Football League - its Free!