Another pleasing day in life of Grimes
MATT GRIMES proved Swansea City can at last get down and dirty after the frills of international football.
The Swans hadn’t won a game following a break for national duty for three years before this gritty battle decided by Grimes’
28th-minute goal after Rotherham keeper Jamal Blackman let the ball squirm under his body.
It was back in 2017 under the management of Paul Clement that Swansea’s international brigade has last rejoined the platoon and tasted immediate victory.
No wonder Swans manager Steve Cooper was cock-a-hoop, even if his side sat so deep on their lead late on, the Millers came close to snatching a point.
They were saved by Rotherham’s wayward finishing and a big call from ref Matthew Dononue, who judged Swans defender Ryan Bennett had not used his arm to deflect away Michael Smith’s goalbound header in the
84th minute.
“We scored a scruffy goal to be fair and had to show the other side of the game in the second half,” said Cooper.
“Resilience and character and dealing with their set-pieces, so I’m really happy with that.
“It is games and days like this that could be really important. I am not saying we wouldn’t have won this game last year, but there were games like this we didn’t win.
“Credit to the boys because our record after the international break hadn’t been great.”
SWANSEA: Woodman 6; Cabango 6, Bennett 6, Naughton 7; Roberts 7, Fulton
7, Grimes 8, Bidwell 6; Dhanda 7 (Palmer
76th); Cullen 6 (Routledge (73rd) 6), Lowe
7 (Smith 86th)
ROTHERHAM: Blackman 7; Olosunde 5 (Clarke (46th) 6), Ihiekwe 6, A MacDonald
6, Harding 7; Jozefzoon 6 (Vassell (61st)
6), Lindsay 5 (Miller (46th) 5), Crooks 6, Barlaser 6, Wiles 6; Hirst 6 (Smith (53rd) 5)
Matt Grimes
M Donohue