BURNLEY 0 SWANSEA CITY 1 Fer (82)
LEROY FER’S 82nd- minute winner denied Burnley a point on their Premier League return.
Last year’s second-tier champions suffered their first league defeat since Boxing Day, 24 games ago, as Dutchman Fer, who made his move to Swansea permanent in the summer, finished from close range.
The Swans had sold both Andre Ayew and Ashley Williams in the week but their resurgence under Francesco Guido lin carried on regardless, even though record signing Borja Baston was absent here and Gylfi Sigurdsson started on the bench.
Although Scott Arfield’s half-volley forced Lukasz Fa bian ski into early action, Guidolin’s threeman central midfield, featuring new skipper Leon Britton and onetime Burnley loanee Jack Cork, was able to dictate play against a Clarets side still looking to replace Joey Barton.
A couple of ta me attempts from Fernando L loren tea side, few problems were posed to Sean Dyche’ s team, though, and the threat of Andre Gray was evident as he crashed one halfvolley over and drilled another into Fabianski’s fists.
The visitors would finish the half stronger as Wayne Routled ge smashed a volley wide from the edge of the box after being picked out by ModouBarro wand Arfield was on hand to clear off the line when Jordi Amat looked to turn home from a corner.
Both goalkeepers were guilty of failing to deal with crosses at the start of the second period and were fortunate they were not punished on either occasion.
Tom Heaton missed a Kyle Naughton delivery, but Barrow’ s try was blocked by Matthew
Lowton and Fabianski could not collect a David Jones corner which nearly reached Michael Keane, whose shirt seemed to be tugged by Fer.
Gray’s pace continued to worry Swans’ backline and, after Amat was booked for hauling him down, Fabianski burst out of his box to slide in as the former non-league forward threatened.
The Pole was back between the sticks to deny Sam Vokes a first top-flight goal with a fine one-handed save.
The visitors should have taken the lead when sub Sigurdsson’s corner was flicked on by Cork and Federico Fernandez ghosted in, only to stab over.
The winner finally arrived when Llorente’s header was clawed out by Heaton, only for Fer to