Another rather young Swans side lost 3-2 to an experienced Cymru Premier Barry outfit, with Iestyn Jones and Sammy Henia-Kamau getting our goals.
We fielded another very young side today at Jenner Park. Although we got through the first half rather fortunately ahead with a Iestyn Jones goal, the pressure from a physically and technically superior Barry Town United side told in the 2nd half.
In truth, we were lucky to escape with a 3-2 defeat.
No teamsheet, no announcements and the Barry social media isn’t much help, so very little to work with in terms of our opponents, other than it was clearly a strong Cymru Premier squad. Kayne McLaggon, who’s been productively knocking around at this level for a number of years, led the Barry line. Ex-Swans U21 central defender Ben Margetson – brother of Kit and son of Martyn – played in central defence.
It was a glorious day to watch football.
Our team lined up 4-3-3: Kit Margetson; Zac Jeanes, Iestyn Jones, Theo Robinson (s – Harry Jones 46m), Seb Dabrowski (s – Callum Deacon 46m); Jacob Cook, Mitchell Bates (captain) (s – Robinson 66m), Tom Woodward; Glory Nzingo (s – Ramon Rees-Siso 61m), James Graham, Kevin Hanratty (s – Sammy Henia-Kamau 7m). Unused subs: Ben Hughes, Harlan Perry.
Trialist left winger Hanratty took a heavy early tackle and his game was over soon after kick-off. James Graham started at centre forward and moved to the left wing to accommodate Sammy Henia-Kamau. It’s been his 3rd appearance with us, but the former Rangers striker hasn’t really shown he can improve our attack.
Barry spurned the chances that came their way in the first half, including a bizarre miss after a poor kick out gifted an open goal to a striker who somehow passed the ball wide of the gaping net.
Mitchell Bates and Jacob Cook were the pick of our players in the sweltering heat. We seemed to be coping reasonably well against experienced opponents. We took the lead on 39 minutes when Seb Dabrowski’s free kick found its way to an unmarked Iestyn Jones on the right hand side of the penalty area. He hit the ball cleanly and converted the rebound off the keeper’s block to put the Swans 1 up before half-time.
Barry made numerous changes and dominated the 2nd half. Without Dabrowski, we looked all at sea on the left hand side of our defence and the Barry wingman got to the byline repeatedly. We couldn’t deal with a flurry of corners. Barry finally and deservedly equalised on 55 minutes when Ollie Hulbert backheeled a shot beyond Margetson. We rallied with a couple of rare chances for Woodward and Nzingo, but further opportunities came Barry’s way. Ben Margetson beat his younger brother with a header on the hour. Another header struck the bar a couple of minutes after that and our defence was at sixes and sevens when Hulbert got Barry’s 3rd on 74 minutes.
We’d attempted to reorganise by bringing Theo Robinson back into the fray, but the damage had largely been done.
Henia-Kamau had few opportunities to get involved but got a beautifully flighted goal from outside the box with 4 minutes left. The 3-2 result flattered us, really. Our defending at set pieces was particularly poor. Barry gave our youngsters a strong lesson, but that’s got to be regarded as part of the learning process for these boys.
Feature Image Credit: John Smith/FAW