Routledge strikes late to steal it for Swansea
Steve Cooper will leave poring over the Championship table to others despite his side claiming top spot after they ended Leeds United’s unbeaten start to the season.
As statement results go, this was up there with the most eye-catching, but the Swansea head coach wasn’t in the mood to engage in any kind of unwise hyperbole despite the impressive way his side maintained their own undefeated record thanks to a dramatic 90th-minute intervention from substitute Wayne Routledge.
“I’ve not even looked at the table yet this season,” insisted Cooper, who has made an immediate impact since taking charge over the summer. This was the Swans’ fifth victory in six games, and their first at Elland Road for almost 70 years.
Cooper, who guided England Under17s to World Cup success two years ago, added: “It’s a good result, there’s no doubt about it, but that’s all it is, one result in a long, long season.
“Not many teams will come here and intend to play like we did today. It’s not really about making a statement at this stage, it’s more about looking at ourselves and striving to be better.
“We felt there were areas in the Leeds game we could exploit. It’s a pleasing victory, but it’s way too early for any mention of being top at this stage.”
Marcelo Bielsa refused to be too critical of his side, who failed to score on home soil for the first time in almost six months due to a combination of wasteful finishing and some admirably stolid defending from the visitors, whose centre-back pairing of Joe Rodon and Mike van der Hoorn excelled form start to finish.
Despite that, the hosts could have been out of sight by the interval, with Liam Cooper’s header from a corner in first-half stoppage time crashing back off the crossbar.
Ezgjan Alioski at this stage spurned two clear chances when arriving unmarked at the far post as Swansea initially struggled to cope with the threat of Stuart Dallas down the hosts’ right. Patrick Bamford headed another of the full-back’s inviting centres wide and his replacement after the break, the onloan Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah, was also guilty of frittering away two good chances.
He fired over when, for once evading the Swansea defence, before sending an unmarked header into the side-netting when it appeared easier to score.
Without the £40m attacking threat of Daniel James and Oli McBurnie following their departure to the Premier League over the summer, Swansea still carried menace going forward, especially on the break.
Leeds goalkeeper Kiko Casilla was forced into a hurried save by the excellent Matt Grimes, and substitute Sam Surridge narrowly failed to direct a late headed effort on target.
Routledge then stepped up to settle matters.
He maintained his composure in a crowded penalty area as stoppage-time approached, to send a far from perfectly-struck shot bouncing into the bottom corner from a dozen yards. And thus seal a classic smash-and-grab result.
Bielsa said: “We needed to win today, or at the very minimum not to lose. To be fair, I can’t be too critical of the players, but we’ve lost a game that we could have won.
‘‘That’s five points we’ve dropped at home, and we’ve created enough chances so far this season to have won all our six games so far, so that’s a disappointment.”