Swans ride Barn storm
CAMERON MCGEEHAN will have nightmares about the two sitters he missed as Barnsley slumped to the foot of the table.
Skipper Alex Mowatt pounced with a tidy finish just three minutes after Andre Ayew had given Swansea a 67th-minute lead.
And Barnsley came close to earning their first win since the opening day of the season to boost caretaker boss Adam Murray’s chances of landing the job on a permanent basis.
Murray was certainly encouraged by his side’s display.
“No one thought we could get anything out of this game except within our four walls,” he said.
“Before the game, I’d certainly have taken a point against a quality team like Swansea, but, considering the chances we had, I’m a bit disappointed.
“We might have gone bottom, but there were a lot of positives.
“Our reaction to falling behind was very encouraging.”
Mowatt’s curler skimmed the bar and Swans keeper Freddie Woodman brilliantly denied Cauley Woodrow late on.
But Mcgeehan should have given his side a two-goal cushion before all that late action.
Six minutes after the restart he failed to find the target from point-blank range, after being set up by Conor Chaplin, to complete a miserable afternoon.
The struggling hosts could have been two goals up inside the opening quarter of an hour.
Within two minutes, Woodman rescued his side with an instinctive save at his near post after Woodrow flicked on a long throw-in from Dimitri Cavare.
Mcgeehan was then guilty of his first clanger 12 minutes later when he blazed over with the goal at his mercy.
Barnsley threatened to turn the formbook upside down, but Swansea gradually found a foothold and Brad Collins in the Tykes’ goal was powerless to prevent Ayew stabbing home.
Barnsley refused to lie down, however, and skipper Mowatt coolly converted Chaplin’s cross.
Swansea manager Steve Cooper was frustrated his team failed to win.
“Having got through the opening hour and then taken control of the game and gone one up, it was quite frustrating to then concede the way we did,” he said. BARNSLEY SWANSEA 5 ........ Shots on Target .........8 12 ....... Shots off Target ......... 3 2 ................Corners .................5 8 .................. Fouls ....................5 3 ............... Offsides ................. 3 67.1 .. Passing Success % . 74.6 304 ...... Total Passes ........468 39.7 ..... Possession % ..... 60.3 54.4 .Territorial Adv % .. 45.6