Rob Davies
There was a collective sigh of relief at the final whistle as Swansea City finally got their Championship campaign underway with a win against Sheffield Wednesday.
The usual roar of joy was instead a collective sigh of relief from the home crowd as goals from Jamal Lowe (from the spot), Jerry Yates and Charlie Patino made it a comfortable win on paper at least.
It comes on the back of a tough week for Michael Duff following that horror show af Cardiff and the stoppage time goal conceded at QPR to throw away two points.
The questions will surely not go away for the Swans coach with tougher tests to come but the win was all that mattered against a fellow struggler in the bottom three at kick off.
Duff kept faith with four at the back as he did against QPR with a few changes from the 1-1 draw on Tuesday night.
Rushworth
Key – Cabango – Wood – Pedersen
Grimes – Patino
Cullen – Paterson – Ginnelly
Lowe
The first was probably fairly even between two sides low on quality and confidence with little in the way to convince either set of supporters that the teams wouldn’t be battling the drop come the end of the campaign.
For the home team Josh Ginnelly was the bright spark following his goal on Tuesday at Loftus Road but he, like many Swans players, was struggling against the wave of brutal challenges by the Wednesday team.
The referee was pretty inept letting far too much go for example when Josh Key was on the floor for 30 seconds or more after a heavy challenge yet no second glance by the man in the middle.
After a tepid opening the game lit up as some Swans play down the left ended with Ginnelly skinning his marker who dragged him down inside the area for a spot kick. Lowe on his second home debut made no mistake.
That was to be the last meaningful impact from Ginnelly as another heavy tackle saw him replaced by Jerry Yates as the Swans had made two subs before half time after Nathan Wood was earlier replaced by Harry Darling.
The referee was again a talking point as Matt Grimes was booked for challenging a decision a little too vociferously as the Swans screamed for a free kick before Rushworth palmed away from Gregory at his near post.
Then on loan Arsenal midfielder Patino laughably saw yellow as he failed to get out of the way of a quickly taken free kick.
Unless he has the pace of Bolt then poor Patino had little chance of evading the ball but that says everything about the first half refereeing performance as Cullen had the ball in the net before half time but was denied by the offside flag.
Perhaps the ball would have gone in anyway from Yates but Cullen’s intervention kept the scores at 1-0 on a nervy afternoon in SA1.
The second half arrived and Swansea looked the more controlled of the two teams with some actual passing breaking out in midfield – yes you read that right.
It all could have counted for nothing when Diaby slammed against the underside of the bar fot the visitors as the Swans lived dangerously on a one goal advantage.
Luckily it was soon two as nice interplay down the left saw Paterson’s deft touch from Lowe’s cross find Yates who made no mistake for his third goal in white.
And no sooner were the celebrations finished was it 3-0 as Lowe again showed great composure and control to set Patino away for a delightful chip over the Wednesday goalkeeper.
From then on it was largely a training exercise with Wednesday’s fans chanting for the sacking of Xisco Munoz in the morning ahead of the long drive back to Yorkshire. Indeed by full time the majority had left and nobody could blame them.
Today was a big win for Duff but it only serves to paper over the cracks of what was a less than convincing performance even if the scoreline suggests otherwise. It’s difficult to be more positive than that despite an encouraging second half against a woeful team.
There are tougher tests ahead with the next ten games looking extremely difficult with the Swans still languishing on just six points from eight games played so far.
On to Millwall…
MATCH FACTS AND LINE UPS
OTHER CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS
LATEST TABLE
NEXT UP FOR THE SWANS
Poor article lacking balance. Far too negative .Just as I would be overstating it say ing great win 3-0
Good write up.
Definitely relief. Yes, we rode our luck but about time that went in our favour.
In addition to three points it should have served to generate some confidence.
Don’t het carried away both sides were very poor. Sheffield more organised, however we had slightly better individuals
Papering over the cracks might be a bit harsh, let’s see what pans out eh!
O come on it was only Sheffield Weds just got promoted to the championship if we could not beet them well one swallow does not make a summer we will see how we get on against Millwall yes.