Swansea City vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance16,933.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Swansea and Blackburn Rovers at the Swansea.com Stadium; Obafemi's 16th-minute header was enough to win it for Swansea, despite Ryan Manning's sending off
Saturday 5 February 2022 20:41, UK
Ten-man Swansea held on to claim a surprise 1-0 win over automatic-promotion hopefuls Blackburn thanks to Michael Obafemi's first-half header.
Obafemi's 16th-minute header was enough to claim all three points for the hosts at the Swansea.com Stadium, despite defender Ryan Manning's dismissal eight minutes into the second half.
The victory, only their second in 10 games, saw Swansea climb to 16th in the Championship table, while Rovers remain second, but they missed the chance to gain ground on leaders Fulham.
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray handed debuts to Wales international Ryan Hedges, signed from Aberdeen last week, and Ryan Giles, who joined on loan from Wolves having spent the first half of the season at Swansea's arch-rivals Cardiff.
Joe Rothwell also returned to the starting XI while top scorer Ben Brereton-Diaz was only a substitute after returning from international duty with Chile.
Mowbray's men forced Swansea onto the back foot early on with a series of lightning-quick attacks down the flanks.
John Buckley could have given them a dream start in only the second minute, but he scuffed his shot into the grateful arms of Andy Fisher from Ryan Nyambe's cross.
But the hosts weathered the early storm and took the lead in the 16th minute with their first attack of note.
And it was Jamie Paterson who made the difference on his return to the side with a superb cross for Obafemi to head home at the far post.
Paterson curled a shot just over the top from the edge of the area soon afterwards but Blackburn responded well.
Darragh Lenihan headed against the post from Giles's free-kick before Buckley poked the rebound over the bar.
Giles then saw a shot palmed to safety by Fisher before Hedges flashed a shot across goal and wide from the left in first-half stoppage time.
Lenihan produced a vital last-ditch tackle to deny Joel Piroe a one-on-one with Thomas Kaminski in the Rovers goal five minutes into the second half. But the momentum shifted when Manning was shown a second yellow for a high boot on Lenihan on 54 minutes.
Mowbray sent on Brereton-Diaz and Reda Khadra for Hedges and Deyovaisio Zeefuik in an attempt to get back into the game, while Martin prepared for a defensive battle with Ryan Bennett and Korey Smith replacing Olivier Ntcham and goalscorer Obafemi.
The Blackburn boss then played his final card, sacrificing another wing-back as Nyambe was replaced by Joe Rankin- Costello to crank up the pressure on the home defence.
And Swansea responded with Joel Latibeaudiere, another defender, replacing their top scorer Piroe.
It was backs-to-the-wall stuff at times from the Welsh side, but they held firm to frustrate their promotion-chasing opponents, with Lenihan wasting two chances in the final five minutes.
Swansea head coach Russell Martin told Sky Sports:
"I think it was a huge win, because it is against a really good team competing at the top of the league. I really liked the first half, a few scary moments, but that is to be expected.
"I thought we looked quite dangerous, we didn't make the most when we beat the press, but when we showed real composure I really enjoyed it.
"The second half was obviously totally different after the red card, we didn't start the half well at all, made too many mistakes.
"After that I am so proud of the players. We limited them to very little after the red card."
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray told Sky Sports:
"Yeah it feels like a missed opportunity, it felt like we were young and naive. We should have scored a couple of goals in the first half.
"We had not really prepared to play against a deep block. We had done a lot of work on how we were going to nick the ball and where we were going to break into the spaces and create chances to win a game off the back of that. Then the game completely changed and we were trying to find a way to break down a deep block of bodies in front of their goal.
"My frustration is - I think experienced players would have moved the ball around quicker, found areas to put it in the box, realised there was no threat on transition so gambled extra bodies into the box, and we'd have flooded people into the box.
"Young guys stay in their position really and I think however much you scream at them it is hard to get the message across."
Blackburn are back in action - and live on Sky Sports Action - on Wednesday when they host Nottingham Forest, who are pushing for a play-off place. Meanwhile, Swansea head to Stoke on Tuesday, which is live on Sky Sports Football with the red button.
