TANGERINES ARE MAD-INE FOR IT!
Early goal sinks the Welshmen
GARY Madine’s early goal proved enough for Blackpool, with head coach Neil Critchley praising his players for “suffering” against a possessiondominant Swansea side.
Madine’s header gave the Seasiders a third league win in a row, and a fifth in six home games to move within six points of sixth-placed Luton Town.
He said: “Swansea can make teams suffer by keeping the ball, but (the players) are good at suffering!
“You have to put your ego aside when you play against Swansea because you know they’re going to have a lot of the ball.
“Our squad have humility, they work for each other, and you can see that in abundance – I wouldn’t want to play against them.”
An organised Tangerine defence frustrated the Welsh side, who dominated the ball throughout the 90 minutes, but Critchley insisted the scoreline was a fair reflection.
Critchley added: “I love watching Swansea play, they’re fantastic – the way they play is very brave.
“They’re the best in the league at keeping the ball, the stats prove that.
“But it’s about scoring goals and winning games and you can do that in a whole host of different ways – I don’t think they can grumble about the scoreline.”
The home side took advantage of slack marking from Charlie Kirk’s corner in the fourth minute when Madine had the freedom of the box to head in at the back post.
A scramble at the opposite end soon after almost brought a leveller, but the home defence cleared before a chance presented itself.
The visitors applied pressure to the resolute home defence – Michael Obafemi inches away from connecting with a clipped cross from deep.
Kirk raced through, but the keeper stood strong to deny him, before Madine saw a shot blocked. From the resulting corner, the scorer nearly repeated his feat from the opening minutes, but saw Andy Fisher parry his header over.
Swansea came close with a free-kick – Obafemi again failing to turn home a cross from Jamie Paterson.
Then, on the stroke of halftime, Josh Bowler wasted a glorious chance – slotting wide when put through oneon-one. The winger continued to torment the Swans after the break, cutting in from the right and hitting the side netting.
Matt Grimes went close from 25 yards for the away side, his strike just wide of a post, but an equaliser never came. Regardless, Swansea manager Russell Martin was proud of his players for the way they played, despite missing the finishing touch in front of goal.
He said: “We were great in the first half, really dominant, although we didn’t create enough.
“A little bit of ruthlessness and quality in the final third was all that was lacking today, but over the last four games our performance level has been really good.
“I really enjoyed today, it’s a sign of where we want to get to, of where we want to be next season.”