A competitive, sometimes feisty 2-2 draw with Cardiff City U21 this evening. We led until conceding a minute into added time to a fierce shot from Romaine Sawyers after a sequence of late corners that we couldn’t deal with.
A fair result overall.
We fielded another imbalanced side, this time reverting to 3-5-2: Evan Watts; Joe Thomas (s – Charlie Veevers 75m), Kian Jenkins, Seb Dabrowski; Harrison Ashby (s – Charles Sagoe Jr 46m), Joel Cotterill, Azeem Abdulai (s – Sammy Henia-Kamau 62m), Mitchell Bates, Ben Lloyd; Maliq Cadogan, Cameron Congreve (s – Glory Nzingo 89m).
Unused sub: Remy Mitchell.
Cardiff included a number of familiar names – Joel Colwill, Cian Ashford, Troy Perrett, overage ex-Brentford midfielder Romaine Sawyers.
The visitors pressed high throughout the first half, our new back 3 fended well, and there really wasn’t that much in the way of clear opportunities. Cadogan and Congreve had early shots saved, Twose shot wide, but it was pretty even.
Swans went ahead with a dramatic diving header from Mitchell Bates on 26 minutes after a wayward Ashby cross was retrieved back into the area.
Cardiff centre forward Robinson had a free header from a corner desperately hacked off the line 3 minutes later and Cardiff equalised right on half-time when Ashford beat Joe Thomas to a simple ball through the centre of our defence to get Cardiff back on level terms.
Given that we’d presented very little in terms of an attacking threat, this didn’t seem unfair.
Surprisingly, we went 2-1 up 6 minutes into the 2nd half with Joe Thomas being on the end of a deep Cotterill corner to steer a header home. Sadly, Joe – who’s only just got back to fitness – was forced off with an injury with 15 minutes to go.
We’d looked quite comfortable at that stage, although Azeem Abdulai’s substitution reduced our control. Not many chances for either side in the remainder of the game, but Cardiff’s late later equaliser had an air of inevitability to it.
For the Swans, Azeem Abdulai had a composed, influential hour or so at the heart of midfield. Mitchell Bates stepped back into that deep lying midfield role and was gutsy and constructive throughout. Seb Dabrowski was safe and steady alongside Jenkins and Thomas. Ashby and Sagoe Junior contributed next to nothing. It’s not necessarily their fault – they simply shouldn’t be here.
Cardiff were coached by Darren Purse. Jamie Paterson and Liam Walsh were among the crowd.