Swansea City secured their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup courtesy of a hard-fought 4-2 success at Barnsley.
Swansea's name in the hat following Oakwell success
Swansea City secured their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup courtesy of a hard-fought 4-2 success at Barnsley.
Danny Graham gave Brendan Rodgers' side a second half lead after Angel Rangel cancelled out Ricardo Vaz Te's opener.
Nathan Dyer seemed to wrap up the win, although the visitors needed a late fourth from Graham after Vaz Te reduced the arrears.
The cold and windy temperatures did little to enhance the atmosphere in the early exchanges with the only noise coming from the sparsely inhabited away end.
It took an enterprising turn and run from in-form Vaz Te to spark the Oakwell faithful into life, however, Swansea's patient passing play lulled them back into submission.
Dominating
The visitors were dominating possession, but it took a long-range effort from Kemy Agustien to prove Luke Steele was awake in goal for the home side.
Steele was on hand to deny Swansea again in the 16th minute when he came out smartly to block Wayne Routledge's shot from Andreas Orlandi's pin-point through ball.
The Swans were keen to utilise their wingers as much as possible, although Neil Taylor's ball from Routledge was too strong and Graham's attempt to thread the needle was off the mark.
Barnsley responded and on-loan Danny Drinkwater's long-range blast fizzed just over Gerhard Tremmel's crossbar.
Keith Hill's side opened the scoring in the29th minute when Vaz Te collected Craig Davies' flick-on before curling a delightful shot beyond Tremmel in the back of the net.
The home support had barely finished clapping when right-back Rangel was rewarded for his forward run by toe-poking the ball past Steele from close range.
Dyer came within a whisker of giving the visitors a half-time lead with a curling shot from the edge of Barnsley's penalty while Steele got just enough on his cross moments later to parry to safety with Graham looking to pounce at the far post.
Lead
Swansea wasted little time taking the lead after the restart with Graham's long-range special leaving Steele clutching at thin air as he attempted to stop the pile-driver.
Within minutes of firing a half-volley over Dyer made amends with a simple finish in the middle after excellent work by Routledge to get the better of right-back Bobby Hassell.
Barnsley were a touch fortunate to still have ten men on the pitch when referee Stuart Atwell waved away the visitors appeals after McEveley appeared to haul back Dyer, who would have been clean through on goal.
The Tykes capitalised on their moment of generosity when they pulled a goal back in the 65th minute when Vaz Te scored his second with a back-post finish from Drinkwater's teasing set-piece.
The goal came out of nothing and the home fans were not going to waste the opportunity to urge on their heroes by turning up the volume in South Yorkshire.
The introductions of Joe Allen and Scott Sinclair steadied the ship for the visitors and fellow substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson, on for his debut, fed the latter only to see the offside flag go up.
Swansea made sure of the result in the dying embers when Graham was perfectly placed in the middle to slot home from Routledge's square ball.
| Barnsley |
Team Name |
Swansea City |
| 49% |
Possession |
51% |
| 2 |
Goals |
4 |
| 2 |
Shots On Target |
6 |
| 5 |
Shots Off Target |
2 |
| 2 |
Blocked Shots |
0 |
| 3 |
Corners |
6 |
| 14 |
Fouls Conceded |
9 |
| 1 |
Offsides |
4 |
| 2 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
|
