Poor Swans Held By Coventry

Swansea City put in one of their worst home performances of the season on Tuesday night as they were held to a boring 0-0 draw at the Liberty Stadium.

Paulo Sousa's side were looking to respond after dropping two points away at Middlesbrough on the weekend but they struggled to get going from start to finish.

Chris Coleman's Coventry City were happy to defend and take home a well-earned draw, but the Swans will certainly see it as another two points dropped and a minor blow to their play-off hopes.

The big talking point ahead of kick-off was Leon Britton, who was missing from the matchday squad for the second time in recent weeks - fueling rumours that he's leaving to join former boss Roberto Martinez at Wigan Athletic.

Questions have been asked recently as to whether or not we can cope if Leon Britton's expected departure becomes a reality. Judging from Tuesday night's performance, the answer is an obvious no. Darren Pratley was the best of a bad bunch, while Jordi Lopez alongside him was completely anonymous.

Paulo Sousa continued to make changes and rotated his side, something that he needs to stop doing because we found it difficult to link on the attack and paly our usual passing game.

Tom Butler replaced David Cotterill on the left wing, and he did himself no favours in trying to impress his boss. Ashley Williams also came in for Alan Tate in the centre of defence. Gorka Pintado continued to lead the attack and new signing Kuqi was named amongst the substitutes. Andrea Orlandi also returned from injury to midfield as Joe Allen was back on the bench.

Swans lined up:

The first half was a rather forgetful one, apart from Darren Pratley having our best effort when his strike hit the post, both goalkeepers had little to do in the opening 45 minutes.

It was simply a poor showing from Sousa's side, with Butler on the left we lacked any pace and attack down that flank and Lopez offered nothing more to help us penetrate their defence. Our usual confident passing style wasn't on show and we were often playing pointless passes in our half with little urgency to play at the other end of the pitch.

The second half wasn't better either. We still had most of the play but we still couldn't find any inspiration to improve our chances of getting all 3 points. Joe Allen came on and Sousa then brought on two strikers, Lee Trundle and Sheifi Kuqi. Trundle struggled to make an impact, he lost possession far too often and Coventry City had a comfortable task in maintaining a clean sheet. Kuqi looked lively and interested and helping our dull fortunes. He looked strong, was willing to run for every loose ball and did well to win a few headers - the signs look good for our new free signing from Koblenz.

Full time came and the 13,000 home supporters left the Stadium disappointed and frustrated. Cardiff City were able to beat Bristol City 6-0 on the same night while Nottingham Forest beat QPR 5-0 to continue their impressive form in the automatic promotion places. While our competitors around us can score for fun, we're struggling to get a single goal against a team who are down in 17th place. Hopefully just a blip, but if we don't respond against Watford on Saturday then there'll be increasing doubt as to whether or not we can maintain our push for the play-offs.

DARREN PRATLEY

Vital F1 Prediction League - Join now for Spain