Phil SumblerSwansea City have three more points in the bag as we scored twice within the first twelve minutes for the second game running to secure a victory at high flying Coventry and move to within one point of the top six.
The Swans went into this game on the back of Saturday’s excellent 3-0 win over Peterborough at the Swansea.com stadium but knowing that this was always likely to prove a tougher test with Coventry eyeing up a place in the Premier League after an excellent start to their own season.
It was therefore somewhat of a joy that Russell Martin saw his side repeat their start of Saturday with two early goals courtesy of Jamie Paterson and Joel Piroe. Paterson opened the scoring in the 5th minute when he was on hand to place home a loose ball in the box that followed a good run and ball from Jake Bidwell on the left hand side.
It was a perfect start to the game for the Swans and that elation was doubled just seven minutes later when Piroe, courtesy of a deflection grabbed the Swans second. This time it was Ethan Laird who was providing the width to the play and as he looked as if he was fouled in the box the ball broke to Piroe who scored the second of the game and sent the 800 travelling Jacks into a period of celebration.
Coventry though – as we anticipated – have more about them than Peterborough did on Saturday and they were not to sit back because of the early setbacks and soon pulled a goal back thanks to a header from MacFadzean who found the back of the net from a corner.
This was making for an entertaining encounter with both sides determined to play good football and look for goals and the remainder of the first half passed with chances for both sides but ultimately no more goals as the Swans headed into the break 2-1 to the good although Coventry were grateful to a good save from a Paterson effort that almost added to the Swans advantage.
The early stages of the second half followed a very similar pattern to that of the first with both sides looking to get forward where possible and the Swans could consider themselves unlucky again not to extend their lead on the hour mark when a Bidwell header from a corner flicked the bar and went over to keep the advantage to just the single goal.
The introduction of Obafemi for Ntcham straight after that corner suggested that Russell Martin was certainly not planning to shut up shop and protect his side’s advantage as the Swans went in search of a third goal.
As the game headed into the last twenty minutes Downes replaced Piroe whilst Coventry replaced Allen with Jones as they looked to see if they could shake things up in their own search for an equaliser that was yielding plenty of the ball for the home side but Ben Hamer at this stage had not been threatened too much in the second half.
The more the game wore on the more it was being played in the Swansea half as Coventry pushed in search of that equaliser with a flurry of corners each dealt with by a resolute Swansea defence who were determined not to give up the good work of the first half by conceding a late equaliser.
To their credit the Swans were not changing their style despite the pressure and continued to pass their way out of the back rather than resorting to methods of previous seasons where long clearances invited even longer periods of pressure against us.
The Swans were grateful to the athleticism of Ben Hamer in the first minute of stoppage time when he saved a long range shot with a tip over the bar and just a minute later a good interception from Bennett saved what looked a good goalscoring opportunity although the intervention of the linesman’s flag would have made it irrelevant.
The last of the three minutes of stoppage time was passed without further incident and the Swans excellent performance had gained them another three points and moved us closer to those precious play off spots.
Onwards now to Bournemouth and the leaders on the weekend but we go there with heads and confidence very high and pushing hard towards the top six.
Happy Days!
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