Despite conceding an injury time equaliser at home to Chelsea in midweek, Swansea City should have approached Saturday’s game at The Hawthornes with optimum confidence having shown class and quality to earn a point off Villas-Boas Champions League chasers.Brendan Rodgers unsurprisingly opted for the same eleven that started Tuesday’s game against Chelsea, having delivered a sumptuous display against the Londoners.Despite falling behind to a Fortune strike at The Hawthornes, Swansea City came from behind in order to record their second away victory of the campaign.Brendan Rodgers’ side were looking to complete their first double of the season on Saturday having already beaten the Midlands club at The Liberty earlier in the season.The Welsh side settled into the game the quicker and for the first time this season away from home, truly demonstrated the style and rhythmic passing movements that they so often show at The Liberty. Having uncharacteristically lost possession on a number of occasions on Tuesday night, Joe Allen was back to his best against The Baggies. Winning a lot of battles in the middle of the park, commanding the play as well as testing Ben Foster in the West Bromwich goal.Swansea were pushing forward with far more penetration, seemingly playing with the perfect balance of fluid passing movements and the right amount of conviction.Unlike so often seen this season, Swansea were not only dominating possession but they were seeing a lot of the ball in Albion’s half, looking to capitalise on their authority and ascendancy.For all of their possession in advanced areas of the pitch, Swansea failed to substantially work Albion’s keeper, riding their luck on a number of occasions in the first half with Sigurdsson forced into making a goal line clearance before a heroic save from Vorm to deny Olsson kept the scoreline level at the interval.Both sides may have felt aggrieved to not have been awarded spot kicks in the opening 45 minutes with the home side’s appeal falling on deaf ears, following a Williams hand ball inside the area. whilst Scott Sinclair’s claims were dismissed after the winger was seemingly hacked down in the box on the stroke of half time.Nine minutes after the restart and against the run of play, Fortune provided the break through, with a great first touch at the far post before driving a volley across the face of goal and into the far corner.But before Swansea fans could even contemplate whether they would be made to rue their first half failures to capitalise on opportunities and dominant spells in possession, Gylfi Sigurdsson found himself latching onto a great ball from Neil Taylor, opening his body to guide the ball past Ben Foster and level proceedings.Swansea found themselves overturning the deficit just 5 minutes after falling behind.Having scored the equaliser, Siggurdson was involved again in Swansea’s second, supplying a superb delivery into the box which was met by Danny Graham, the striker directed the ball past Albion’s keeper in order to score his 11th goal of the season.After the goal, a few sloppy errors from the visitors allowed Albion to play their way back into the game. The Baggies came close to rescuing a point when Odemwigie found himself in acres of space however, with only Vorm to beat, the striker failed to retain his composure as he fired his shot high over the cross bar.Nathan Dyer almost extended Swansea’s advantage when Graham played him through, but the winger couldn’t get an influential touch as the ball trickled past the post.Arguably the signing of the January window, loan signing Gylfi Sigurdsson continued in the same form that has seen him become an instant fans favourite in South Wales with a tireless work ethic, the Icelandic midfielder proved a constant nuisance, pressurising West Brom’s defence he consistently fought to regain possession, intercepting to help spark an attack as well as combining well with Danny Graham.Saturday’s win sees Swansea move into the top half of the table with 24 games played. A great feat for Brendan Rodgers side who have received mass accolades again this week for sticking with their philosophical stylish football
Soccer Magazine
After the disappointment of a draw at home to Chelsea, Abi Davies got back on the coach as the Swans headed to the Midlands for the game against fellow midtablers West Bromwich Albion.
Despite conceding an injury time equaliser at home to Chelsea in midweek, Swansea City should have approached Saturday’s game at The Hawthornes with optimum confidence having shown class and quality to earn a point off Villas-Boas Champions League chasers.Brendan Rodgers unsurprisingly opted for the same eleven that started Tuesday’s game against Chelsea, having delivered a sumptuous display against the Londoners.Despite falling behind to a Fortune strike at The Hawthornes, Swansea City came from behind in order to record their second away victory of the campaign.Brendan Rodgers’ side were looking to complete their first double of the season on Saturday having already beaten the Midlands club at The Liberty earlier in the season.The Welsh side settled into the game the quicker and for the first time this season away from home, truly demonstrated the style and rhythmic passing movements that they so often show at The Liberty. Having uncharacteristically lost possession on a number of occasions on Tuesday night, Joe Allen was back to his best against The Baggies. Winning a lot of battles in the middle of the park, commanding the play as well as testing Ben Foster in the West Bromwich goal.Swansea were pushing forward with far more penetration, seemingly playing with the perfect balance of fluid passing movements and the right amount of conviction.Unlike so often seen this season, Swansea were not only dominating possession but they were seeing a lot of the ball in Albion’s half, looking to capitalise on their authority and ascendancy.For all of their possession in advanced areas of the pitch, Swansea failed to substantially work Albion’s keeper, riding their luck on a number of occasions in the first half with Sigurdsson forced into making a goal line clearance before a heroic save from Vorm to deny Olsson kept the scoreline level at the interval.Both sides may have felt aggrieved to not have been awarded spot kicks in the opening 45 minutes with the home side’s appeal falling on deaf ears, following a Williams hand ball inside the area. whilst Scott Sinclair’s claims were dismissed after the winger was seemingly hacked down in the box on the stroke of half time.Nine minutes after the restart and against the run of play, Fortune provided the break through, with a great first touch at the far post before driving a volley across the face of goal and into the far corner.But before Swansea fans could even contemplate whether they would be made to rue their first half failures to capitalise on opportunities and dominant spells in possession, Gylfi Sigurdsson found himself latching onto a great ball from Neil Taylor, opening his body to guide the ball past Ben Foster and level proceedings.Swansea found themselves overturning the deficit just 5 minutes after falling behind.Having scored the equaliser, Siggurdson was involved again in Swansea’s second, supplying a superb delivery into the box which was met by Danny Graham, the striker directed the ball past Albion’s keeper in order to score his 11th goal of the season.After the goal, a few sloppy errors from the visitors allowed Albion to play their way back into the game. The Baggies came close to rescuing a point when Odemwigie found himself in acres of space however, with only Vorm to beat, the striker failed to retain his composure as he fired his shot high over the cross bar.Nathan Dyer almost extended Swansea’s advantage when Graham played him through, but the winger couldn’t get an influential touch as the ball trickled past the post.Arguably the signing of the January window, loan signing Gylfi Sigurdsson continued in the same form that has seen him become an instant fans favourite in South Wales with a tireless work ethic, the Icelandic midfielder proved a constant nuisance, pressurising West Brom’s defence he consistently fought to regain possession, intercepting to help spark an attack as well as combining well with Danny Graham.Saturday’s win sees Swansea move into the top half of the table with 24 games played. A great feat for Brendan Rodgers side who have received mass accolades again this week for sticking with their philosophical stylish football
Despite conceding an injury time equaliser at home to Chelsea in midweek, Swansea City should have approached Saturday’s game at The Hawthornes with optimum confidence having shown class and quality to earn a point off Villas-Boas Champions League chasers.Brendan Rodgers unsurprisingly opted for the same eleven that started Tuesday’s game against Chelsea, having delivered a sumptuous display against the Londoners.Despite falling behind to a Fortune strike at The Hawthornes, Swansea City came from behind in order to record their second away victory of the campaign.Brendan Rodgers’ side were looking to complete their first double of the season on Saturday having already beaten the Midlands club at The Liberty earlier in the season.The Welsh side settled into the game the quicker and for the first time this season away from home, truly demonstrated the style and rhythmic passing movements that they so often show at The Liberty. Having uncharacteristically lost possession on a number of occasions on Tuesday night, Joe Allen was back to his best against The Baggies. Winning a lot of battles in the middle of the park, commanding the play as well as testing Ben Foster in the West Bromwich goal.Swansea were pushing forward with far more penetration, seemingly playing with the perfect balance of fluid passing movements and the right amount of conviction.Unlike so often seen this season, Swansea were not only dominating possession but they were seeing a lot of the ball in Albion’s half, looking to capitalise on their authority and ascendancy.For all of their possession in advanced areas of the pitch, Swansea failed to substantially work Albion’s keeper, riding their luck on a number of occasions in the first half with Sigurdsson forced into making a goal line clearance before a heroic save from Vorm to deny Olsson kept the scoreline level at the interval.Both sides may have felt aggrieved to not have been awarded spot kicks in the opening 45 minutes with the home side’s appeal falling on deaf ears, following a Williams hand ball inside the area. whilst Scott Sinclair’s claims were dismissed after the winger was seemingly hacked down in the box on the stroke of half time.Nine minutes after the restart and against the run of play, Fortune provided the break through, with a great first touch at the far post before driving a volley across the face of goal and into the far corner.But before Swansea fans could even contemplate whether they would be made to rue their first half failures to capitalise on opportunities and dominant spells in possession, Gylfi Sigurdsson found himself latching onto a great ball from Neil Taylor, opening his body to guide the ball past Ben Foster and level proceedings.Swansea found themselves overturning the deficit just 5 minutes after falling behind.Having scored the equaliser, Siggurdson was involved again in Swansea’s second, supplying a superb delivery into the box which was met by Danny Graham, the striker directed the ball past Albion’s keeper in order to score his 11th goal of the season.After the goal, a few sloppy errors from the visitors allowed Albion to play their way back into the game. The Baggies came close to rescuing a point when Odemwigie found himself in acres of space however, with only Vorm to beat, the striker failed to retain his composure as he fired his shot high over the cross bar.Nathan Dyer almost extended Swansea’s advantage when Graham played him through, but the winger couldn’t get an influential touch as the ball trickled past the post.Arguably the signing of the January window, loan signing Gylfi Sigurdsson continued in the same form that has seen him become an instant fans favourite in South Wales with a tireless work ethic, the Icelandic midfielder proved a constant nuisance, pressurising West Brom’s defence he consistently fought to regain possession, intercepting to help spark an attack as well as combining well with Danny Graham.Saturday’s win sees Swansea move into the top half of the table with 24 games played. A great feat for Brendan Rodgers side who have received mass accolades again this week for sticking with their philosophical stylish football
