For the third time in four previews, I’m back again to talk about a clash with a side from South-Wales; this time the rematch against The Swans which I wrote about in November. Back then, Swansea had taken 4 points from a possible 15 at home and found themselves down in 17th place in the table. In classic #typicalcity style, the Tigers went 2-0 down at half time before introducing Cyrus Christie at the break who then set up both Philogene and Morton to claim a draw. Well, Swansea are now on a 4-game losing streak and haven’t won away since December 9th against Rotherham. In a month that sees them play City, Leeds, Ipswich and Sunderland, Luke Williams’ side might see their trip to the MKM as their only chance of picking up any points in February having already lost to Plymouth last time out.

It's been a baptism of fire for new boss Williams since opening up with a win against Morecambe in the cup. Since drawing 2-2 with Birmingham in what was also Tony Mowbray’s first match in charge of the Blues, Williams has racked up successive defeats both in the league and cup and is still searching for his first League win as boss. In case you weren’t aware, Luke Williams was the mastermind behind Notts County’s promotion from the National League in which they scored 117 goals, finishing second behind Wrexham. When he left his position at the Magpies halfway through this season, they were top scorers across all of England’s professional leagues with 55 goals. If and when he gets Swansea firing, they’ll certainly be a threat going forward.

The good thing about previewing the same team is that I can re-use old material. Last time I spoke of Swansea likely fielding a centre-back partnership of Humphries and Darling that would delight fans of camp sitcom characters from the 70s and 80s. This time both look likely to miss out, joining ex-loanee Liam Walsh, Josh Key, Josh Ginnelly and Jamal Lowe on the sidelines. Interestingly, Jamaica international Lowe is one of six loanees that the Welsh club currently have. Any fans heading to the MKM on Saturday who wish to taunt the visiting supporters about their number of borrowed players should probably skip a pre-match pint as the Welsh for “Loanee FC” is “clwb pêl-droed benthyg”.

City’s own on loan players should mostly be available. Even birthday-boy Liam Delap, who definitely won’t feature tomorrow, was given positive news regarding the seriousness of his own injury. With 3 games in 7 days, Tuesday’s clash against Rotherham is the most likely to see some rotation so I imagine we’ll line up almost unchanged against Swansea. Seri will be playing in the Cup of Nations final on Sunday (good luck!) but Adama Traore, Aaron Connolly and Cyrus Christie are all back in contention and may feature in the squad. My only real doubt is who will start up front. Tufan is probably favourite to start again but Ohio will also be pushing for a place in the XI.

Predicted Line-Up:
Allsop; Coyle, Jones, Greaves, Giles; Slater, Morton; Zaroury, Carvalho, Philogene; Tufan/Ohio