Gylfi winner is just what doctor ordered for Guidolin
WHATEVER the doctors are doing for Francesco Guidolin, perhaps nothing will improve his health as much as hearing of Swansea’s second win in a week.
The Italian, who was brought in to rescue the Welsh club from relegation, is expected to be released tomorrow from the north London hospital where he was taken last week suffering from a chest infection.
And Gylfi Sigurdsson’s second-half winner yesterday should put a spring in his step. ‘We had a message from Francesco after the game to say how delighted he was with the result,’ said assistant Alan Curtis.
‘It’s bound to have given him a huge boost. I think he would have managed to watch the game somehow – you can do all sorts of things with computers these days, so they tell me!’
Even club legend Curtis, however, admitted the game itself was a shocker. New FIFA president Gianni Infantino broke off from meetings in Cardiff to take in the game and he must have wondered why he had bothered.
‘As a spectacle it was quite poor,’ admitted Curtis. ‘Both teams got caught up in the tension of everything it meant.
‘But we made some changes at half-time and the goal was one of the best moves of the match. Even then we got tense and were hanging on at the end.’
Norwich have now taken just one point from their last nine games but they looked the better side in the first half. With Steven Naismith finding space and Nathan Redmond willing to run at nervous full-back Neil Taylor, they caused trouble without making chances.
And in the second half Curtis, who has now overseen four of Swansea’s eight victories in this troubled season, took command and changed the side Guidolin had picked from his hospital bed, bringing on more attacking players in Modou Barrow and Leroy Fer.
The switch worked. With 61 minutes gone, Jack Cork picked out Fer’s run and the Dutch midfielder found Sigurdsson who swept home his sixth goal in 10 games.
Norwich almost snatched a draw, Redmond putting their best chance a fraction wide of a post after a mistake by Wayne Routledge.
To add to the concern of Norwich boss Alex Neil, Naismith came off early with a hamstring injury.
He said: ‘They had a 10-minute spell when they were on top and scored, and when we had our 10 minutes we didn’t manage to convert it into anything.
‘That’s the most frustrating thing about this run. It is clear that we need to start winning some games or we will not stay in this league.’