Wales rugby heroics help inspire Swans
THIS Swansea team aspire to dominate possession, build attacks from the back and play nice passing football. But sometimes, to get the results you crave, you just need a bit of luck with the penalty box pinball.
So it was in this win over Bristol City, where a stubborn deadlock was broken by the perseverance of Cyrus Christie being in the right place at the right time 11 minutes from the end.
Joel Piroe later rolled home a added-time third to seal a comefrom-behind victory that will work wonders for confidence as manager Russell Martin builds towards next season.
Martin has a clear vision of how he wants his Swansea team to play and saw parallels when he watched the Wales rugby team fight back to beat Scotland in the Six Nations on Saturday.
‘I went to a game yesterday when a team that really trusts in the process stuck at it after a really difficult period at the start and the crowd helped them,’ Martin said.
‘We have an unwavering trust in the process of what we are trying to do. We understand where we are at in that process.
‘We spoke at half-time about trying to be the team we want to be and we showed a lot of courage to do that in the second half.
‘It’s a really big win, I’m really proud of the team. We deserved to win.’
Swansea still find themselves 16th in an infuriatingly inconsistent season, a clear regression from the play-offs last year. But there is the promise of better.
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson, on the other hand, was at his belligerent best afterwards, having given his players both barrels in the dressing room.
He fumed at how his team tossed away the lead given to them by Andreas Weimann’s 15th goal of the season and collapsed miserably after the break.
‘If you defend like that, you get what you deserve,’ Pearson said. ‘What you can’t do is give players desire. So we might have to make changes because people like me lose their jobs through results like these. We get in front and concede three c*** goals.
‘Between now and the end of the season, we’ll see if these players are good enough to be here next year.
‘This club has had too long of putting up with players who go through the motions. I’m not having it.’
They were gifted their 42ndminute opener when Swansea’s Ben Cabango strayed too far forward and lost possession to Antoine Semenyo, who slipped Weimann through.
The Austrian held off Ryan Manning and then finished past goalkeeper Andy Fisher into the top corner.
But Martin’s half-time reassertion of core values worked as Michael Obafemi equalised nine minutes after the break.
Christie ran diagonally into the box, seeming to pass up the best shooting angle before rolling a cross to the far post for Obafemi, who had gambled on the ball coming his way, to tap home.
It looked for a time like Swansea would not get their reward for enjoying 71 per cent of possession but Christie got the lucky break they needed.
Manning crossed from the left, Piroe flicked on and Christie’s effort was saved by Dan Bentley. The rebound fell for Olivier Ntcham but his shot hit Bentley too. The next ricochet then hit Christie, who may not have known too much about it, and went in.
Piroe made sure with a bottomcorner finish in the fourth minute of added time.