Ayew’s accused of ‘roll play’ but Ben seals it for Swans
ANDRE AYEW was accused of “embarrassing” play-acting after the Swansea City striker went through more rolls than a Greggs takeaway.
The Ghana striker clashed with Millwall’s Jake Cooper when the sides were level at 1-1 and although no cards were shown, it was enough to boil the blood of Lions manager Gary Rowett.
Swansea went on to take the points through Ben Cabango’s winner after Millwall’s Welsh striker Tom Bradshaw had cancelled out Jake Bidwell’s opening strike.
Rowett admitted that Cooper may have caught Ayew with a flying elbow – although he insisted it was not intended.
But Ayew’s rolling across the turf and screams were too much for the former Derby and Birmingham boss.
“There are certain things I don’t like about Ayew’s game, but he’s a Premier League quality player,” said Rowett.
“I heard someone screaming. I have watched it. Swansea thought it was a blatant elbow but as he runs across Coops, he runs into his arm.
“But no contact would make anyone roll round the floor, screaming. Connor Roberts did it in the first half, Ayew did it in the second half.
“There is no place for it in that game. I thought it was pretty embarrassing. There wasn’t a mark on him.”
Swansea manager Steve Cooper – whose team have begun with three wins and a draw – saw the incident differently.
“I’ve seen it back, and he’s definitely caught him,” said
Cooper of his namesake, the Millwall centre-back.
“I don’t think any of us would like an arm flush in our face.
“Whether it was intentional or not I don’t know. I certainly wasn’t embarrassed.”
The Swans lacked some sharpness in the first half.
But as soon as Bidwell prodded in from Morgan Gibbs-White’s cross after the restart, they took charge.
Bradshaw’s driven shot for the equaliser on 51 minutes was a rare lapse by the home side who regained the lead in the 68th minute when Cabango showed calm under pressure to lift the ball into the top corner.
The only downside for Cooper was his admission that his winger Kristoffer Peterson appears to be on his way to Fortuna Dusseldorf without the coach’s blessing.
Peterson had to be pulled from the squad yesterday morning.
And Cooper said: “I had a message this morning to ask for him not to be involved.
“He was in the squad and would probably have been on the bench and that’s as much as I know about it.
“I didn’t want to lose anybody, We’re going into the busiest Championship schedule ever.”
SWANSEA: Benda 7; Cabango 8, Rodon 8, Guehi 7; Roberts 7, Smith
6, Grimes 7, Bidwell 7; Gibbs-White
7 (Fulton 78th), Ayew 6, Lowe 6 (Gyokeres (74th) 5)
MILLWALL: Bialkowski 6; Romeo 5, Cooper 6, Pearce 6 (Bodvarsson 84th), Hutchinson 6, Malone 6; Leonard
7, Woods 6, J Wallace 7; Bradshaw
7 (Smith (74th) 6), Bennett 6 (Mahoney (74th) 6)
STAR MAN: Ben Cabango
REF: S Martin