LOWE CAN TURN TIDE
Life’s a beach for Swans winger
DEFIANT Steve Cooper reckons there is “fire in the belly” of his Swansea players once again.
And as soon as there is grass back on the pitch, there will be no stopping them.
An early goal from Jamal Lowe – his third in as many games – and an own goal by Barnsley’s Victor Adeboyejo late on were the buffers to a grinding, gritty victory.
It wasn’t pretty, but on a playing surface that resembles Mumbles beach when the tide goes out, it was more than enough to subdue a blunted Barnsley.
Almost as soon as the players trudged off, the tractors rolled on with the club having taken the extraordinary decision to dig up their bald, diseased pitch in mid-winter and lay a brand new one.
Swans boss Cooper had been angered by his players’ attitude in their 2-0 midweek defeat at Derby but felt he trusted them to respond with a victory that lifted them back to third in the Championship table.
“I saw fire in their bellies in the training ground – both in the meetings we have with the players and the work on the ground,” he said.
“Myself and the coaching staff said the boys looked ready and there was a really good vibe.
“It didn’t need much from me today. They were ready to put things right and they did that.
“I don’t think anybody was particularly happy with the condition the pitch had got in.
“Nobody was looking for any blame, it was just about the solution, and the club have come up with one.”
No one typified Swansea’s spirit more than the speedy winger Lowe, who was chasing down lost causes as well as good ones.
He took encouragement from his goal which came when Ben Cabango’s flicked header caught out the Tykes and Lowe steered the ball home after little more than a minute.
With Matt Grimes able to still look neat and purposeful across the mudflats, Lowe might have added more goals, but the game was settled when Adeboyejo back- headed Grimes’ corner into his own net.
It might have been a different story if Valerien Ismael’s visitors – who had won four of their previous five games in the Championship – had managed to turn pressure into clear-cut opportunities in their best spell before half-time.
The nearest they came was when a dipping free-kick by skipper Alex Mowatt was pawed away near the post by Swansea keeper Freddie Woodman.
French coach Ismael said: “It was a strange game.
“But it is not possible every time to concede early. It is not the first time. It is very difficult to come back every time. I told the guys at half time to accept the awful pitch and to fight and to go back to the basics.
“But the intensity was not there, there was fatigue.”
Ismael added: “We have to take into account the situation – in such a schedule, we can get such a performance.”
SWANSEA CITY: Woodman 7; Cabango 7, Bennett 6, Guehi 6; Roberts 7, Fulton 7, Grimes 8, Bidwell 6; Dhanda 6; Lowe 7, Ayew 6. Unused subs: Benda, Manning, Smith, Gyokeres, Routledge, Cullen, Latibeaudiere, Cooper, Palmer.
BARNSLEY: Walton 6; Brittain 6, Sollbauer 7, Helik 5, Andersen 6; Oduor 5, James 6 (Palmer 70, 6), Mowatt 7 (Kane 82), Frieser 5; (Miller 56, 6), Chaplin 6 (Thomas 56, 5), Woodrow 6 (Adeboyejo 56, 5). Unused subs: Collins, Moon, Schmidt.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Matt Grimes. Neat and tidy on the messiest of surfaces.
REFEREE: Andy Davies 7.