Swansea City 3(1) v (0)0 Kidderminster Harriers

Harriers' fifth defeat in a row condemned them to sit at the foot of the table for the first time since they were promoted to the Football League four years ago.

Controversy surrounded the manner in which Harriers were sent on their way to defeat, although this should not distract attention from the fact that they were once again awful.  But, as the old adage goes, when you're down everything goes against you.  Jan Molby had to shuffle tha pack once again as injuries kept his available players down to a minimum; Dean Keates, Micky Mellon and Frédéric Advice-Desruisseaux all missed out, Richie Appleby started his second game in a row and there were recalls for both Ian Foster and Jesper Christiansen as the formation was changed to 4-4-2 for the first time this season.

For the opening few minutes Harriers looked as though they may be able to hold their opponents and maybe grind out a result to get back some of the rapidly evaporating confidence that grew from three straight clean sheets at the start of the season but that all went out of the window when City took the lead after a quarter of an hour.  John Danby and Chris McHale clashed with a Swansea attacker as they all challenged for the ball and the two Harriers men came off worst, lying injured in the goalmouth as play continued, the ball was only half cleared and was fired back in from distance by Paul Connor and much to the dimay of the Harriers contingent the referee allowed the goal to stand after a brief consultation with the linesman; he could do little else, really, as neither he nor the liensman had seen any foul by the Swansea player.

City began to take control of the game and the dangerous Lee Trundle could have doubled the advantage midway through the half when he received the ball from the left and after a good turn fired his shot over the bar.  Harriers' best chances of the half came in the dying moments; Christiansen got to the byline on the left and pulled the ball back to Foster but he curled his shot just wide of the far post and then Appleby fired over from 25 yards out after Langmead had knocked the bal down to him.  At the other end Danby did well to push the ball away for a corner as he kept out a snap shot from Kristian O'Leary.

After the break Harreirs had a good chance to get back into the game; a long crossfield pass from Steve Burton picked out Simon Brown on the right flank, he cut inside his marker and the goal began to loom large but he dleayed for far too long before taking hte shot and was denied by a great tackle from Sam Ricketts.  City were still looking dangerous, however, and should have gone further ahead soon after when an Andy Robinson shot had Danby beaten all ends up but cannoned back off the post.  The second goal was not long in arriving, Trundle received the ball in the penalty area with his back to goal but a fantastic turn left Wayne Hatswell for dead and he slotted his shot inside the far post.

Midway through the half Harriers felt that they should have had some help from the referee when Brown broke through on goal but was brought down on the edge of the penalty area by Kevin Austin; the contact probably was a foul but the theatrical way in which Brown fell to the ground seemed to convince the referee that the was no illegal contact.  With no-one in the midfield taking control for Harriers or showing much in the way of leadership, their best chances to get back into the game were from set pieces; an Appleby free kick fifteen minutes from the end found the head of Langmead but he could only watch in dismay as his glancing header skewed wide of the far post.

Whenever Swansea attacked they seemed to be toying with Harriers as all of their passes found their targets and they were able to create chances almost at will.  Robinson got to the byline on the left with only a few minutes left on the clock and his cross to the far post found Connor and he should have done better than heading over the bar.  The third goal came as City knocked the ball around with style and the Harriers defence disappeared in front of them, Roberto Martinez slipped the ball through the inside-right channel to Leon Britton and his low cross was turned in at the near post by Connor.  Deep in stoppage time Brown went close to grabbing a late consolation for Harriers with a chip from just outside the penalty area that almost deceived Willy Gueret in the City goal.