Swansea City 3 - 1 Bolton Wanderers - Match Report
After the disappointing self-destructive performance at Molineux last week, Swansea were looking to return to winning ways at the Liberty Stadium and duly delivered against a Bolton side which looked overwhelmed by their opponents for large portions of the game.
After the disappointing self-destructive performance at Molineux last week, Swansea were looking to return to winning ways at the Liberty Stadium and duly delivered against a Bolton side which looked overwhelmed by their opponents for large portions of the game. Despite losing their record of consistent clean sheets at home, the Swans have firmly cemented their established style of keeping the ball and playing it along the ground in the Premier League. No fewer than 722 passes were attempted throughout the game and only 66 were misplaced - an accuracy rating of 91%. In addition to these impressive statistics, Leon Britton put in a performance not matched six seasons in the Premier League by completing all 67 of his passes. Whilst these figures made the game look like a completely one sided affair, the first half was tight and Bolton had the greater chances on goal. David N'Gog gave the visitors the best chance of the half after Chris Eagles took the ball into the Swansea 18 yard box and a blocked attempt found it's way to the Frenchman. N'Gog struck a fierce shot on the turn which forced Michel Vorm to tip the ball over the bar. The home team also had chances in the opening 45 minutes but failed to make them count. Their fluid passing style ripped open the Bolton defence at times giving good chances to Neil Taylor and Mark Gower amongst others but Jaaskelainen was rarely forced into anything more than a routine save. From the start of the second half, everything started to turn pear shaped for Bolton. Swansea attacked from the get go, with Danny Graham accelerated past Gary Cahill to effectively beat the attempted high line but skewed his shot just wide of the goal. With this continued pressure, only 4 minutes into the half, Bolton were reduced to 10 men after Ricardo Gardner picked up a second yellow card. Both offences which earned Gardner the sending off were involving Nathan Dyer, who's pace and footwork proved too much for the Jamaican to handle. Immediately after the dismissal Swansea were ahead. Mark Gower's free kick was played square to Joe Allen who effortlessly made a run into the Bolton 18 yard box and took a low strike which found the net at the near post. It was the second goal in successive games for the 21-year old. After conceding the goal, the deficit was doubled by the hour mark. A corner played in by Mark Gower eventually found it's way to Danny Graham who was taken down by former Swansea midfielder Darren Pratley to concede a penalty. Scott Sinclair continued his 100% success record of penalties taken by sending Jaaskelainen the wrong way in calm fashion. Moments later there were chances for Sinclair to double his lead, dragging his shot just wide of the post, and Danny Graham who had a headed chance strike the crossbar. Despite being a one man and two goals down, Bolton didn't give up the ghost. A move which started from a marauding run into the Swansea half from David Wheater found Chris Eagles who placed a low cross into the Swansea 18-yard box. Garry Monk looked to have the situation under control but Danny Graham slid in front of the Swansea captain to misplace his clearance into his own net. After losing a two goal cushion at Wolves last week, the Swansea fans were clearly starting to worry that lightning could strike twice the players however remained calm and collected. The words of Brendan Rodgers' disappointment from last week must've been ringing through their minds as they kept possession of the ball and failed to commit many men forward in attack to preserve their lead. In the final ten minutes of the match, Sinclair again almost doubled his tally for the game by striking the underside of the crossbar after a cut back cross from Nathan Dyer but it was Danny Graham who redeemed himself by scoring the goal to put the game to bed in the last minute of injury time. After the Bolton defence committed too many men forward in search of an equalising goal, Angel Rangel found Danny Graham in acres of space to be left one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Unlike his last square off with Jaaskelainen, Graham found the back of the net. It was a comprehensive performance by Swansea who did have the man advantage for the second half but also exposed Bolton's defensive problems with their passing play. The win left Swansea 10th in the table and Bolton still in the bottom three.