Vale 3 Swansea 2

Swansea City put a dent in their promotion hopes after a 3-2 defeat away at Port Vale.

Luckily results elsewhere meant we remained in the playoffs but we're now 6 points behind Brentford in 2nd, making Swindon yet another must win game if we want to gain promotion this year.

Kenny Jackett made just one change from the side that beat Carlisle last Sunday in the Football League Trophy. Strangely, Leon Knight was given a start on the left wing, dropping Robinson to the bench.

It was the home side that started off much the better side and they opened the scoring 2 minutes before the break.

A long diagonal ball out to the right wing saw Birchall beat Ricketts and his cross was met by the unmarked Togwell who easily headed the ball home. The centre backs as well as Ricketts made it easy for Vale to move into the lead and we needed to show a big improvement in the second half if we wanted to get anything out of the game.

And we did just that as Akinfenwa was on the scoresheet again. Trundle turned away from his marker before sending in a high cross to Akinfenwa at the far post who headed the ball in from just a yard out.

Martinez was brought on at the start of the second half for Kristian O'Leary.

11 minutes later though and they were back in front. With good play on the left wing, Cummins picked up the ball and we gave him time and space to unleash a shot from outside the area which Gueret should have dealt with, he was only able to get a weak hand to the ball as it then flew into the top left corner.

Swansea were then punished for more defensive errors - similar to that which led to their opener. Tate was beaten on the left and Constantine was unmarked to head the ball in.

We then got a goal back 2 minutes from the end. Tudur-Jones won the ball in the middle of the park and sent Trundle free down the right. Fallon got on the end of his high cross with a controlled volley at the far post to score his first league goal for the Swans.

Lee Trundle really should have scored at least one goal at the end, having 2 great chances on goal.

His first chance came when he was through on goal on the left from a great back heel by substitute Andy Robinson. His fierce shot though struck the upper side of the bar.

Moments later it looked as if he was going to score the equaliser. He lifted a shot over the goalkeeper but a defender came flying in to clear the ball off the line.

We really should be beating teams like Port Vale if we want to go up automatically and surely I'm not the only one who's getting fed up with comments in the paper from players saying we can win promotion. It's about time they did their talking on the pitch.

Port Vale: Goodlad, McGregor, Pilkington, Walsh (Fortune 74), James, Cummins, Sonner, Togwell, Birchall, Constantine (Matthews 90), Smith. Subs Not Used: Brain, Husbands, Dinning.

Swansea City: Gueret, Tate, Monk, Lowe, Ricketts, Britton (Fallon 74), Tudur Jones, O'Leary (Martinez 45), Knight (Robinson 61), Akinfenwa, Trundle. Subs Not Used: Forbes, Williams.

Att: 4,850

Ref: B Curson (Leicestershire).

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