Bruce’s joy at first Owls success
SHEFFIELD Wednesday boss Steve Bruce was happy with his side’s overall performance as they breezed past Swansea to give him his first home win since taking charge at Hillsborough.
All the Wednesday goals came in the first half, with Adam Reach scoring twice and Steven Fletcher adding a third.
Wayne Routledge scored what proved to be a consolation goal for the visitors midway through the second half.
Bruce said: “We made hard work of the second half but, considering two or three are sick and not great, two or three are carrying knocks and two in particular haven’t played for months, I knew the second half was going to be a struggle.
“I didn’t know it was going to be that big of a struggle after the first half, but I was delighted with the way we went about it in the first half.
“We were clinical, we went after them with a plan and certainly worked against them to get after the ball. When you’re getting after the ball and press high like we did, it takes some doing to sustain it.
“The second half left a lot to be desired, but we were worthy, worthy winners in the end.”
It didn’t take long for Wednesday to show their intention. Sam Hutchinson got to a long ball and passed to Reach on the right. He sent a looping cross towards Fletcher, who won the header, but couldn’t make sufficient contact and it looped over the bar.
However, the lead soon came for Wednesday. After some good hold-up play from Lucas Joao, he popped the ball off to Rolando Aarons, who set up Reach and the wide man slotted the ball home with a lovely firsttime finish. In the 32nd minute, Wednesday doubled their advantage. Newcastle United loanee Aarons sent a dangerous cross into the box, and defender Connor Roberts failed to deal with it, allowing Reach to slot the ball into the bottom corner, beating Kristoffer Nordfeldt at his near post for his second of the day.
Three minutes before halftime, the hosts made it three. Following a corner, Michael Hector’s header was cleared only as far as Tom Lees, who looped the ball back into the danger area and Fletcher, with a spectacular overhead kick, found the bottom corner.
Swansea finally got a consolation in the 69th minute when the ball was pulled back from the right-hand side to Routledge, whose first-time shot took a wicked deflection past Keiren Westwood.
Swansea manager Graham Potter said: “From our perspective, we’re disappointed with our first half, of course.
“We weren’t at the level we need to be. Having said that, we had a few good chances, but we probably contributed to our own downfall and that’s a learning point for us.
“At half-time we were looking for a response, for something better and I think we had that.
“We had some good chances second half. We should have made it 3-2 and then you never know. In the end, you can’t expect to do what we did in the first half to get anything.
“Of course I expected us to be a better. We contributed a little bit to our own downfall.”