By: Omar Jatta
Finally, it looks like Modou Barrow’s fortunes at Swansea City are beginning to grow after enjoying yet another cameo sniff at Premier league football, which follows his full match appearance for the Swans on Monday against Crystal Palace.
And once again he has impressed in his rare field-day against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where his team suffered a narrow 2 – 1 defeat to Louis Van Gaal’s team.
The 23 year old Gambian was very bright after coming on as a sub in the place of Leon Britton, and did not waste anytime to set up Gylfi Sigurdsson 8 minutes after his introduction in the 62nd minute.
After a couple twists and turns on the right The Gambian forward clawed out a left-foot cross into the middle, where Sigurdsson was waiting to turn a fine header up and over De Gea and into the net. Barrow’s introduction was a positive substitution from the Swansea manager Alan Curtis and has paid off as Bartow added some attacking impetus to his team with pace and directness and he gave a torrid time to Manchester United’s full-back Daley Blind on the left hand side, who struggled to deal with his energy and surging runs and it was no surprise to see him got booked for a reckless shoulder charge on the speedy winger.
Since his arrival at the Wales club from Swedish side Ostersunds FK last Summer, Mo, as he is fondly known to Gambians has struggled to hold down a regular first team place, despite having a number of impressive performances for Swansea’s Under 21 side before being elevated to the senior duties by manager Garry Monk in his maiden season. He had a brilliant cameo performance in his Premier League debut against Arsenal last November, where he featured as a substitute and was influencial in the outcome the game after winning the freekick that started an incredible comeback from a goal down to beating Arsenal 2-1. He later went on to make further appearances against Manchester City and Crystal Palace before being sent out on loan to Nottingham Forest, where he got called following injuries to Wayne Routledge and Jefferson Montero.
This term, Barrow had pre-season training with the Swans before but was later sent out on a three month loan to Championship side, Blackburn Rovers last September, which followed his debut appearances for The Gambia Scorpions against Uganda Cranes in an International friendly before making his full debut for the Scorpions in the AFCON 2017 qualifiers against South Africa in Durban. The Gambian forward was receiving considerate amount of playing time until the Swans somehow abruptly exercised a clause in his loan contract at Blackburn to recall him in an attempt to fill the void left by the departure of Nathan Dyer.
Since his return from Blackburn, he’s featured 11 times for the Swans this season including two starts and nine substitute appearances. His latest start came last monday against Crstal Palace. Hopefully his latest exploit against Manchester United on Saturday Afternoon will earn him more playing time.
