The young Swans endured a frustrating morning against a powerful and defensive Torquay United side at a wet and windy St. Helens ground on Saturday, writes Daniel Davies.
The home side were dominant throughout, with only the lack of a goal to show for their attacking dominance.Torquay took the lead in the 33rd minute against the run of play, when Ray Spear leapt above the defence to flick on to his strike partner Ashley Yeoman who coolly slid home the finish past Rhys Wilson in the Swansea goal.
Torquay seemed happy to sit back and protect their 1-0 advantage and rarely threatened Wilson's goal, with the young Swans relentless in their search for an equaliser.
The hard work appeared to have paid off in the dying moments of the game when Sam Rose-Miles cut inside from the right wing, passing to Lee Lucas who played in Kurtis March with a deft pass.March kept his composure to slide the ball past Torquay 'keeper Michael Searle only for his effort to be ruled offside by the referee's assistant.
Swans: Rhys Wilson, Scott Tancock (Adam Orme, 62'), Matthew Whatley, Joe Walsh, Ben Davies, Anthony Finselbach (C) (Charlie Kasler, 62'), Kurtis March, Lee Lucas, Jordan Smith, Sam Rose-Miles, Jordan Prosser (Thomas Gregg Lopes Da Silva, 62').
Not Used: Ashley Elsey (GK).
Torquay: Michael Searle, Joe Parish, Richard Westcott, Aaron Kudi, Ed Palmer (C), Scott Taylor, Rob Hemming (Jimmy Holland, 76'), Ryan Beattie, Ray Spear, Ashley Yeoman, Aiden Mackin (Frazer Clark, 76').
Goal: Ashley Yeoman (32')
The result was no reflection on this one sided affair as Swansea dominated throughout, keeping possession and moving the ball around with nice passing early on.In the 14th minute, the home team could well have taken the lead with great build up play from the back.
Joe Walsh floated a perfectly weighted ball to Lee Lucas, whose first time pass found Jordan Smith surging forward. The young midfielder slid the ball out to the right wing where Scott Tancock played a lovely ball to Lucas who continued his run into the Torquay area, rifling a low cross into the six-yard box, but no white shirts were on hand to get the final touch to round off an impressive passing play.
As much as the young Swans were dominating the possession, Torquay were dominating the aerial battle, which was proving frustrating as the home team just couldn't produce in the final quarter of the field.
Lucas again threatened when he tore through the Torquay defence, in a display of individual brilliance, taking on three players in a mazy run before cutting back inside, only for his effort to curl wide of the visitors left post.
Torquay almost doubled their lead before half-time when Aiden Mackin found Ryan Beattie on the right wing.Beattie miss-hit his cross into the box, but almost caught Wilson out, just dropping the wrong side of the cross bar.
The second-half saw the Swans come out all guns blazing with Jordan Prosser, Kurtis March, Anthony Finselbach and Lee Lucas all having chances to pull the scores level, with goal scorer Ashley Yeoman denied a second by Rhys Wilson in the Swansea goal.
There were strong claims from the home support on the hour for a penalty as Ben Davies was brought down by Aaron Kudi on the edge of the area, but the referee could not be sure of the claim, with the angle of tackle making it inconclusive.
Only one team looked like they would score as Swansea pressed for the equaliser and the final five minutes were rife with efforts on goals, with some frantic defence keeping the home team at bay.Then in the 89th minute, Swansea finally had the ball in the back of the net, only for the referee assistant to raise his flag as March miss-timed his run by mere inches.
The final whistle blew to bring a close to a highly frustrating morning for Tony Pennock's young Swans, with Torquay leaving Swansea very pleased with the three points.
