Swans smash woeful Rovers
Saturday 14 April 2012 18:03, UK
Swansea City all-but secured Premier League football for another season with a 3-0 home win over Blackburn Rovers, who remain 19th.
Blackburn remain deep in the relegation mire after latest defeat
Swansea City all-but secured Premier League football for another season with a 3-0 home win over Blackburn Rovers, who stay 19th with surrounding teams yet to play. Man of the match Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring on 37 minutes with a beautiful curling shot inside the box that Paul Robinson could do little to keep out. Nathan Dyer added the second six minutes later, slicing in after some one-touch passing in the Blackburn box. Swansea sealed Blackburn's fate on 63 minutes when Sinclair jinked through the Blackburn defence before his low cross-shot was turned into his own net by the unfortunate Scott Dann. Both teams went into this game on the back of four straight defeats but it was Swansea that stopped the rot with a dominant performance against a woeful Blackburn Rovers side who looked destined for the drop.Brilliant
Joe Allen floated a lovely ball across the box which Sigurdsson brought down to curl a left-footed effort into the far corner of the net for his seventh goal since his loan move from Hoffenheim. Blackburn were rocked and an awful pass from Steven Nzonzi played Danny Graham in, but Robinson made a fantastic sprawling save to his left to keep the striker's low shot out. But the lead soon doubled as Dann's woeful clearance fell to Scott Sinclair. The winger played the ball inside to Graham, who in turn unselfishly set up Dyer for the winger to slice the ball past Robinson. Dunn had a decent chance to pull a goal back for Rovers shortly after the break but he scuffed his volley from Dann's header back across goal. And normal service was soon resumed as patient Swansea passing ended with Rangel firing over from just inside the area.Extended
Having sent on Mauro Formica for Grant Hanley at the interval, Rovers boss Steve Kean then removed Junior Hoilett in favour of Anthony Modeste, and David Goodwillie followed in place of Yakubu. But the changes had little impact as Swansea extended their lead further in the 63rd minute. Sinclair danced his way into the box, beating three defenders before teeing up Sigurdsson. The midfielder's effort hit the post but the unfortunate Dann directed the rebound into his own net. Dunn then headed over from inside the six yard box, and then struck the post in a brief Rovers rally, before Robinson prevented Sinclair making it four with a save low to his right. They could have added further goals but Sinclair fired over Robinson's bar after being allowed to easily cut in from the left, while Robinson then made another agile save in the dying moments to prevent substitute Leroy Lita finding the net.Swansea City | Team Statistics | Blackburn Rovers |
3 | Goals | 0 |
2 | 1st Half Goals | 0 |
8 | Shots on Target | 2 |
10 | Shots off Target | 6 |
4 | Blocked Shots | 0 |
7 | Corners | 3 |
8 | Fouls | 14 |
2 | Offsides | 0 |
0 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
0 | Red Cards | 0 |
90 | Passing Success | 65.6 |
19 | Tackles | 19 |
68.4 | Tackles Success | 84.2 |
73.3 | Possession | 26.7 |
46.1 | Territorial Advantage | 53.9 |
608 | Total Passes | 212 |
30 | Total Crosses | 10 |
140 | Lost Balls | 141 |
59 | Recoveries | 39 |
72.4 | 1st Half Poss. | 27.6 |
75.8 | 2nd Half Poss. | 24.2 |