Swansea City vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance14,037.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Swansea City and Preston North End at the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday | Matt Grimes penalty sets Swans on way to victory.
Saturday 17 August 2024 19:14, UK
Managerless Preston slumped to their seventh successive league defeat as they were beaten 3-0 at the Swansea.com Stadium.
It was the first league game in charge for interim boss Mike Marsh and, despite a morale-boosting 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Sunderland earlier in the week, there was no change in fortunes in the Sky Bet Championship.
March was temporarily handed the managerial reins by chairman Peter Ridsdale after the shock departure of Ryan Lowe after only one game of the season and headed to south Wales hoping to see his side recover from their 2-0 home defeat to Sheffield United on the opening day.
They came into the game against Swansea without a league goal in six games and they found themselves under the cosh from the start as Swansea pressed forward in their opening home match of the campaign.
Luke Williams' side enjoyed 63 per cent possession in the first half and came up with a goal in the 39th minute when skipper Matt Grimes hammered home from the penalty spot after Liam Lindsay had handled the ball as new signing Eom ji-sung hooked the ball back into the danger zone from the byline.
The best chance of the game up until that point had fallen to Preston's Robbie Brady on the half-hour mark when he picked up a loose ball after a challenge on Josh Key. He drove into the box, found himself one-on-one with Lawrence Vigoroux, but saw his tame shot comfortably saved by the Swansea goalkeeper.
Marsh's half-time team talk obviously hit the spot because his team came out firing in the second half, forcing their first corner in the opening minute.
They then thought they might have had a penalty in the 53rd minute when Harry Darling slid in to stop Stefan Thordarson's pull back reaching Emil Rils in front of goal.
The ball went out for a corner and seemed to make contact on the floor with his arm, but referee Steve Martin waved away claims for a penalty.
Ryan Ledson then had a great chance to level from eight yards out, but his effort deflected off a defender on the line for a corner.
Swansea doubled their lead just after the hour mark when substitute Azeem Abdulai picked up his second goal of the week after scoring in the cup win over Gillingham.
He did not know much about it as an Ollie Cooper shot from a cutback by Liam Cullen bounced off his back and went past Freddie Woodman into the Preston net.
New striker Zan Vipotnik, who played for Slovenia at the European Championship in the summer, came off the bench to notch his first Swansea goal in the 83rd minute when he met a Ronald cross at the near post to steer the ball home.
Swansea's Luke Williams:
"I'm really pleased because I think we performed in a way that was value for the result. If you win and maybe you didn't deserve to, you take it, but if you win and you deserved, it is a special thing for coaches.
"I want the fans to turn up expecting to see that and I want them to see it more often than not. We know it is going to be incredibly challenging games.
"There are some fabulous teams in the Championship. We know that we will have tough days but, more often than not, it would be great if we can see energy, aggression, flare, excitement - performances that people want to come back and watch and fall in love with."
Preston's captain Ben Whiteman faced the media following the departure of interim manager Mike Marsh surely after the game:
"We came out of the traps well in the second half and I thought we were good for 15 minutes or so. We had to score when we were on top and had the momentum like that.
"We created two very good chances, among the best in a while, and they didn't go in. Then they ran down the other end and got a deflection.
"When you look at the goals today, there isn't much in them. They had a deflection and a penalty, but the main thing is we have got to improve.
"We knew they had tricky wingers but I don't think they caused us too many problems apart from the goals. It was a very frustrating game and we have to improve - it's as simple as that."
