Swansea v Blackburn

[jackaway]

Swansea v Blackburn Tue 20 Jan 19:45
The last of the three home matches this month, including the Cup game, a defeat and a draw so far, and not much luck. Hopefully we can put away our chances and get the three points tonight.

Although Blackburn are 5 points below us in the table they seem to be a hard nut to crack with 6 draws in their last 10 matches. Last Saturday they lost 3-0 at Ipswich though, who are in top form at the moment.

Swans meanwhile are much improved but have trouble scoring and holding on to a lead if they do score, especially late on in matches when they run out of steam with their high intensity play and bringing on inferior subs.

We all thought at the beginning of the season that we had a strong squad but it has turned out not to be the case, with some of the new players disappointing so far. Quality back-up loanee centre-back Casey returning to West Ham due to lack of game time has not helped either. He was not happy at being subbed in the West Brom Cup game and has gone home to London to go out on loan to local club League One Leyton Orient, where he came on as sub last Saturday.

With the hamstring injury to Idah we are short of back-up for Vipotnik, playing Cullen out of position up front does not work, although he was unlucky with his header which hit the post in the Birmingham draw.
Only five points separate us from the drop again so we need to start picking up some wins from somewhere.

[jackaway]

We meet up again with former Swans Academy winger Ryan Hedges who joined Blackburn in 2022, and is a current Wales international.
We must be wary of our tendency to concede goals from former players.

[Iolo]

Too true jackaway!
Come on the boys, get the win tonight!!
Robbed in a penalty shoot out against the Baggies, robbed of the win by another poor referee against the Brummies, our luck has got to change soon surely.
Gotta say the standard of refereeing in the Championship is abysmal.

[jackaway]

Here we go:

Swans: Lawrence Vigouroux, Ethan Galbraith, Ben Cabango (c), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon, Marko Stamenic, Goncalo Franco, Melker Widell, Ronald, Jisung Eom, Zan Vipotnik.
Subs: Andy Fisher, Josh Key, Jay Fulton, Malick Yalcouye, Liam Cullen, Bobby Wales, Joel Ward, Ollie Cooper, Sam Parker

Blackburn: Balazs Toth, Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Sondre Tronstad, Sean McLoughlin (c), Yuki Ohashi, Moussa Baradji, Connor O'Riordan, Mathias Jorgensen, Tom Atcheson, Brandon Powell, Aodhan Doherty
Subs: Nicholas Michalski, Harry Pickering, Yuri Ribeiro, Dion De Neve, Axel Henriksson, Eiran Cashin, Adam Forshaw, George Pratt, Nathan Diamini

[jackaway]

Match report:

https://www.swanseacity.com/news/rep...kburn-rovers-1

[jackaway]

After match reaction from Vitor Matos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=fROTUanRRKM

[jackaway]

Swansea 3 (Vipotnik 21’, 63’, O’Riordan 50’ og) - Blackburn 1 (Jorgensen 35’)
Very satisfying win that as it pulls us clear of relegation for now. We had to win tonight with two tough away games coming up.
It was a scrappy game at times, Rovers marked us tight with a high press and robust tackling, but Vips took his chances well. We were caught napping for the equaliser after Galbraith lost the ball, Powell crossed and new signing Jorgensen beat Burgess to fire home at the far post.

[jackaway]

Sky Sports match highlights:

https://www.skysports.com/football/v...hip-highlights

[Estoban]

Blackburn had a big injury list including ex-Swan Ryan Hedges. They pressed us well throughout though and unsettled our normal game. After we scored we became overconfident which led to some sloppy play and a mistake by Galbraith, the cross missed by Cabango then Burgess for their only goal.
Vipotnik man of the match with his hold up play and laying off of passes, of course his goals as well. A relief to get what could have been classed as a six pointer, but a far tougher test coming up on Saturday.

[Iolo]

For me boys my view is three goals scored and three points on the board at the end of the day in this very competitive division. Yes how we play is important and we were sloppy and overconfident at times but just look at the table and we are only seven points off the play-offs.