Swansea City vs Preston North End. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance15,098.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea and Preston at the Swansea.com Stadium on Friday | Jamie Paterson scores twice - including a 95th-minute winner - either side of Liam Millar's goal
Saturday 23 December 2023 10:10, UK
Jamie Paterson scored an injury-time winner to hand Swansea their first home win in eight games and deny Preston a valuable away point thanks to a 2-1 Championship win.
Neither side could have complained with sharing a draw as a game of little inspiration ticked into added time at the Swansea.com Stadium.
However, Alistair McCann gave away possession inside his own half and Swansea at last found a clinical edge as Jay Fulton released Paterson, who struck the winner in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Swansea climbed four places to 15th in the table as a result, while Preston continued their dramatic slide in form and slipped to ninth.
Alan Sheehan had been told he would be in charge of Swansea over the Christmas period as the club continues to search for a long-term replacement for Michael Duff.
But the interim manager had urged for clarity over the vacancy, having taken four points from his previous three games in charge.
Sheehan named the same starting XI that was beaten by Middlesbrough last time out, while Preston counterpart Ryan Lowe made six changes to the side that was thrashed 5-1 by Watford last time out.
That included a first league start for former Swansea goalkeeper Dai Cornell, who spent six years with his hometown club without playing in the league.
Cornell was first to be pressed into a save when he denied Jamal Lowe from close range following Josh Key's smart cut-back from the right.
Preston, with just one win in six, were limited to a long-range effort from Robbie Brady, though should have done better with Duane Holmes' counter-attack, which broke down after Alan Browne's heavy touch.
Harry Darling went close to finishing a sweeping team attack but Swansea's frustration grew amid the stalemate with Matt Grimes, Lowe, Ben Cabango and Paterson all booked in the space of eight minutes.
Preston's cause was not helped by losing Brady to injury before half-time, though Ched Evans brought a decent save from Carl Rushworth early in the second half.
But it was Swansea who scored first when Grimes found Paterson on the edge of the box and the striker swept his right-footed shot beyond Cornell.
That prompted a swift response from Preston, who levelled the scores just six minutes later.
Evans attacked deep on the right before Liam Millar gathered the ball on the left, steadied himself and stepped inside Darling to curl his effort beyond Rushworth.
Millar came close to a similar goal just moments later but this time the Swansea goalkeeper tipped the shot past the post.
Swansea defender Cabango missed a free header in front of goal from a free-kick and the game looked destined for a draw before Paterson struck again in added time to clinch maximum points.
Swansea caretaker Alan Sheehan:
"We're delighted with the win. We haven't been good enough at home or got enough points but after the playing well and losing against Middlesbrough last time out, tonight was just about doing enough to win the game.
"We weren't fluent with our performance by any stretch. We tried to play it through, looking for the perfect goal but it broke down each time.
"Preston are physical and try to ram it down your throat which we have to deal with. They came to make it hard for us and sometimes you've just got to grind it out and two moments of absolute quality from Jamie Paterson won us the game.
"We need to build confidence, resilience and a desire to win from this. When you win and have things to work on then that's good. It wasn't pretty but we got the job done and took a valuable three points."
Preston's Ryan Lowe:
"I'm disappointed and gutted that we just couldn't see it through to get what would have been a good point.
"I thought we were well worthy of the draw. It was a battling performance, nothing amazing and we dug in.
"We knew Swansea would dominate possession because that's what they do but we handled their pressure well for long periods but individual errors have cost us.
"We played sideways instead of forwards for the second and left the man unmarked in the box for the first.
"It was disappointing because we had got ourselves right back in the game with a great goal and I felt we were in the ascendency.
"The players have character and effort but there were two lapses of concentration for the goals.
"I have to take responsibility as the manager, I know that and I have to lift myself first because I feel that I'm letting people down and I don't like doing that.
"We could do with a bit of luck and to get that we need to keep working hard and digging in."
