RUDY HELL FOR BORO
Gestede misses sitter as relegation fears deepen
IT IS the question that haunts every side throughout the long and agonising summer that follows relegation: “What if?”
Last night at the Liberty Stadium they must have been the words being muttered by Swansea and Middlesbrough supporters alike.
What if Swansea’s Gylfi Sigurdsson had played the first half like he did the second?
What if Martin Olsson had just showed a bit more composure with his finishing? What if this signals the end of the Swans’ revival under Paul Clement?
Secured
But most of all, for Boro, what if Rudy Gestede had scored from six yards in the final minute with the sort of header that is normally his bread and butter?
On a weekend when Hull and Crystal Palace, two of the clubs most caught up in the dogfight for survival, had secured unlikely wins, this was the one that got away for both Swansea and Middlesbrough.
Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the fear of failure. For whatever reason, neither side could find the telling moment that might make the difference.
Since taking charge from the hapless Bob Bradley, Swans boss Clement has produced something of a miracle.
But it is a measure of just how deep in the mire the club were that the four wins from six games he engineered now seem a distant memory and reality is biting all over again.
The key to survival is Swansea’s home record and Clement knew he needed a quick start to settle some nerves. Fit-again full-back Olsson almost delivered but when he ran on to Tom Carroll’s pass after only three minutes, he fizzed his shot just wide.
And then Jordan Ayew, playing up front because Swans’ biggest goal threat, Fernando Llorente, had failed a fitness test, had a decent shot well saved by Victor Valdes.
Boro, too, had their moments and it took brave blocks by Alfie Mawson and then Kyle Naughton to keep out shots by Alvaro Negredo and Stewart Downing.
Swansea were obviously aware of the threat posed by the pace of Adama Traore.
Leroy Fer was booked for bringing him down and then referee Robert Madley warned skipper Jack Cork he’d find a card for anybody else after Mawson also stopped the flying Spanish winger unfairly. But the bigger issue
for Clement was to find a way of getting Sigurdsson more involved in the game.
Apart from one dangerous cross, he was too isolated on the left. Clement sorted that problem during the break and the Iceland star began to move into more central areas, bringing a fantastic save from Valdes with a curling shot from 25 yards.
Boro, who had already lost Gaston Ramirez through injury, suffered another blow when Fabio was hurt with an hour gone.
Clung
It left new boss Steve Agnew with hardly any options to change the game as his side came under more and more pressure.
Downing, who had started in the No.10 role, was forced to fill in at left-back.
Somehow Boro clung on as the ref ignored claims for a penalty when Sigurdsson’s free-kick deflected wide off Adam Forshaw’s arm and then Mawson’s header from a corner was cleared off the line.
Boro defended with huge courage as Swansea flung balls into the box in a frantic final 10 minutes and should have stolen all three points but Gestede missed with his header from Negredo’s pinpoint cross.
Sadly for Boro fans on their six-hour journey home that was one more, “What if ?”.