Praise for Ayew after he secures turnaround at Reading

There are times that your changes as a football manager come off and there are times that they don’t but the introduction of Andre Ayew yesterday without a doubt transformed a game and ultimately secured the Swans the play off berth that they required.

Ayew effectively made the first goal with a touch of magic whilst scoring the second himself which for a while looked like it could have been enough to secure another win at Reading and would have done had it not been for a last minute equaliser.

His touch in the first goal was as sublime as anything that you will see on a football pitch this season as he flicked the ball through three Reading players to set Fulton clear and whilst the midfielder could not finish himself, Jamal Lowe was on hand to fire home the rebound and bring the scores level.

It was a touch of magic from the Swans leading scorer who had been introduced to the action just minutes earlier as part of a triple substitution from Steve Cooper who is often accused of being slow with his changes.

It was little wonder then that Cooper was full of praise for Ayew after the game after he picked up yet another man of the match award from Sky and will be the Swans’ main hope as they enter the play off campaign.

“All the subs played their part, Connor Roberts and Korey Smith have regularly started for us, and Morgan Whittaker is a young lad doing well for us,” said Cooper on the club’s official website after the game.

“We knew Wayne Routledge and Liam Cullen would not play 90 minutes, they both did well for us and we knew we would need our bench.

“Andre is a really good player and person, he thrives on being the big player and we are very happy to have him.

“The team comes first, not himself, and you could see that today.

“It would have been great if we didn’t need him, as it would have meant we were comfortable in the game.

“But we did, he was medically cleared to play 30 minutes, and it ended up being a good move thanks to the good work from Andre and the medical team.

“It helped get the result we wanted.”