Swansea City vs Bolton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance17,880.
Craig Noone and David Wheater both saw red for Bolton at the Liberty Stadium.
Sunday 3 March 2019 19:51, UK
Oli McBurnie and Bersant Celina struck late as Swansea beat nine-man Bolton 2-0 to dent Wanderers' hopes of Championship survival.
Craig Noone and David Wheater both saw red as the visitors battled hard to secure a draw at the Liberty Stadium.
But Swansea striker McBurnie netted his 18th goal of the season with less than 10 minutes remaining before Celina found the top corner to punish Bolton's indiscipline and leave them seven points from safety.
Bolton's preparations for this vital clash had been overshadowed by financial problems, and Daniel James and McBurnie looked intent on adding to their misery by making it an uncomfortable afternoon for the Bolton defence.
James left Wheater in his wake after being played in by his attacking colleague, but he pulled his shot a yard wide.
Their roles were reversed moments later when the Swansea winger found McBurnie in the box. The striker turned into space and curled a shot towards the far post, but failed to beat Remi Matthews.
It looked as if Swansea were finally going to be rewarded for their first-half dominance when Nathan Dyer was hauled down in the box by Noone after a clever one-two with Kyle Naughton.
McBurnie looked certain to add to his tally for the season, but Matthews dived down to his right to make a crucial save.
Bolton midfielder Callum Connolly forced a reaction save from Kristoffer Nordfeldt as Bolton looked to build on their reprieve, but Noone handed the initiative back to Swansea two minutes before half-time.
The former Cardiff winger had been booked for the mistimed challenge that resulted in the penalty, and he let his emotions spill over less than 10 minutes later when he crashed into McBurnie with a forceful late tackle.
He was shown his second yellow card and given his marching orders by referee Gavin Ward.
Bolton held firm after half-time but were the masters of their own downfall when Wheater saw red after 72 minutes.
Pawel Olkowski's loose ball was pounced on by Wayne Routledge, who knocked the ball into open space in the Bolton half.
The Swansea winger would have had a clear run at goal, but the Bolton skipper tripped him on the halfway line to deny the one-on-one opportunity.
After lengthy deliberations between the officials, Ward showed Wheater a straight red card to take Bolton down to nine men.
Parkinson's men set out to contain their opponents for the final 10 minutes but they finally cracked when substitute Courtney Baker-Richardson headed a loose ball into the path of McBurnie, who calmly found the bottom corner.
And Celina made sure the Swans got back to winning ways two minutes into stoppage time when he calmly placed the ball into the top corner after being picked out by James.
Graham Potter: "The hardest thing to do is play against a team with a defensive mindset and you have to find the answers all the time.
"For a young group, for young players to have the courage in each other, the support of each other to react well means I am really pleased."
Phil Parkinson: "The first sending-off is a bad decision by the referee. Craig has gone into a challenge to block the ball in the middle of the pitch and I'm not sure how you can tackle any fairer than that. If those tackles are yellow cards, then we may as well rule out tackling altogether in professional football.
"Craig stays on his feet and stays strong in a block challenge and it's never a yellow card in a million years. The second one is a straight red card - even though David is a long way from goal he is the last man."
