Swansea City vs Rotherham United. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance15,144.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea and Rotherham at the Swansea.com Stadium as Chiedozie Ogbene's eighth goal of the season cancelled out Joel Piroe's opener in a 1-1 draw on Monday night
Monday 27 February 2023 23:00, UK
Swansea and Rotherham earned a point apiece from an entertaining 1-1 draw at the Swansea.com Stadium on Monday night.
Joel Piroe ended a four-match goal drought to give the hosts the lead three minutes before the break, after Chiedozie Ogbene had struck the post inside the first minute for Rotherham.
But Republic of Ireland international Ogbene struck a bizarre, improved equaliser with 52 minutes on the clock with Swansea unable to recapture the lead.
The point is, arguably, more valuable to Matt Taylor's Millers, who are now six points above the relegation zone with 12 games to play; Swansea now sit 15th, 10 points outside the top six, with their play-off hopes ebbing away.
With both sides no doubt sensing this as an opportunity to earn points for their respective causes, it seemed proceedings would be open, particularly given that Swansea's 33 league games had seen a total of 96 goals scored.
The first chance came in a flash, when Ogbene cut in from the right and curled a shot off the left-hand post, but, thereafter, Swansea struggled to dominate possession as they so often do, and while Rotherham were well-organised at the back, at the other end of the pitch, they toiled. A spark was required.
That spark came three minutes before the break. Joe Allen - making his 600th senior appearance - threaded a ball over to Ryan Manning on the left, who delivered a neat cross for Piroe to show a lethal touch to open the scoring despite having been largely anonymous to that point.
The lead did not last long, though. Inside 10 minutes of the restart, Brentford loanee Tariqe Fosu dribbled down the left flank and waited for the overlapping run of Shane Ferguson, whose cross found Ogbene, who prodded in after he had stopped the ball dead when initially sliding to meet the ball.
Bailey Wright was then seemingly fortunate not to be punished as the last man for grappling with Morgan Whittaker as the Swansea forward raced forward to try and latch onto a long ball from Swansea goalkeeper Andy Fisher.
Rotherham had the chance to win the game, when Georgie Kelly fired straight at Fisher after a frantic goalmouth scramble, but it ended end all square, prompting loud boos from the home fans.
Swansea's Russell Martin:
"It's a disappointing night for us. It's a point on the board, but I think it summed up where we're at at the moment. We're a young team, very low on confidence, with loads of anxiety - the whole place is filled with anxiety at the moment. It's a really tough moment for us. The players are trying really hard, but we're nowhere near at our best.
"We went 1-0 up and I thought it would relax us a little bit. We showed a lot more courage to play in the second half than we did in the first half, which was sticky, untidy. Then we conceded a really poor goal and that creates even more anxiety. We just didn't have any sustained period in their final third, which is unlike us. Anxiety and fear kills creativity, kills confidence, and we weren't able to get any momentum in the game.
"It's as poor as we've been. The results have been really poor recently, but performances, on the whole, have been good and I've just said to the players they are low on confidence because of the outcome, not the performance. We have two options - one is to roll our sleeves up and try and get a spark to get some momentum and confidence back or the other one is to not. So there's only one choice for us."
Rotherham's Matt Taylor:
"It's nowhere near the boost of three points, but it's a point in the right direction. We tried to take advantage of their lack of confidence and what might have been a difficult night for Swansea. We let them into the game just before half-time, which I was so, so frustrated about and then we had some honest words at half-time - led by the players, first and foremost - and our intent and quality was a lot better in the second half.
"We have to tell each other the truth sometimes and as much as our structure was OK in that first half, our execution and quality was too poor to sustain any quality moments. We knew that, the players knew that, but they also needed to tell each other. But for a couple of scrambles, we might have got three points."
Both teams are next in action on Saturday, March 4 at 3pm. Swansea travel to Kenilworth Road to take on Luton, while Rotherham welcome Gareth Ainsworth's QPR to the New York Stadium.
