Rovers foiled by Oba
GRITTY Swansea survived for over 40 minutes with 10 men to leave Blackburn with a stone in their shoe – just when they hoped to jog on with their promotion surge.
Ryan Manning was sent off after two yellow cards when the Swans were holding on to a 1-0 lead and Rovers must have felt the balance would tip in their favour.
Instead, Blackburn left empty-handed – missing the chance to stretch their lead over Bournemouth in third place as the Swans recovered from back-to-back defeats.
Michael Obafemi scored the only goal (above), created by the craft of Jamie Paterson, to leave Tony Mowbray’s team with just one win in four games.
For Paterson, the victory must have felt like a point proved.
The midfielder had missed six games after a contract dispute with the club left him not in the right frame of mind to play, according to head coach Russell Martin.
But Martin said: “Jamie makes a huge difference to our team.
“He’s one of the bravest players we have. The way we play takes courage and he has that in abundance.
“It’s hurt us and him not having him available. This was a huge win against a really good team.
“I’m proud of the resilience they showed and the character.” Having buried the hatchet in his dispute with his club, Paterson reached instead for a slide-rule in the 16th minute – measuring a cross to perfection as it dropped between Blackburn’s two centre-backs.
All Obafemi had to do was time his jump and meet it.
Manning had been booked for a late tackle in the first half and then took a second yellow in the 53rd minute when he volleyed Darragh Lenihan instead of the dropping ball.
Blackburn spurned three good chances.
Two of those were down to Lenihan, who failed to capitalise on a delicious curling cross from new loan signing Ryan Giles and then side-footed over the bar.
Mind you, Lenihan was unlucky in the first half with a header, which struck the post, and John Buckley’s casual misplacing of the rebound over the bar was Blackburn’s worst miss of the night.
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray said: “It felt like we were young and naive.
“The game completely changed and my frustration is that experienced players would have moved the ball more quickly, and recognised there was no threat in transition.”
SWANSEA CITY: Fisher 6; Cabango 7, Downes 7, Manning 6; Christie 6, Ntcham 5 (Smith 58, 7), Grimes 7, Wolf 6 ; Paterson 8, Piroe 6 (Latibeaudiere 72, 6); Obafemi 6 (Bennett 54, 7)
BLACKBURN ROVERS: Kaminski 6; Lenihan 6, van Hecke 6, Wharton 6; Nyambe 5 (Rankin-Costello 68, 5), Travis 6, Rothwell 6, Zeefuik 5 (Khadra 60, 6); Buckley 7; Giles 6, Hedges 7 (Brereton-Diaz 60, 6). MAN OF THE MATCH: Jamie Paterson. Proved he can graft as well as glide on his return to the team.
REFEREE: Tim Robinson 7.