Match Report

Swansea City 4-1 Preston North End - Match Report by Nigel Gigg, Match Pictures by Andrew Thomas

Wales, the UK and even the world may be deep in recession, but you’d never believe it from the faces of those leaving the Liberty tonight. Swans fans were by and large grinning from ear to ear as Swans produced another vintage performance and smashed four goals past promotion chasing Preston.

Roberto Martinez made two changes from Saturday’s historic cup win at Portsmouth. Joe Allen failed a fitness test and was replaced by Mark Gower and Dorus de Vries came back in place of Dimi Konstantopoulus.

Side- de Vries, Rangel, Monk, Williams, Tate, Dyer, Britton, Pratley, Gomez, Gower, Scotland. Subs- Serran, Jones, Orlandi, Pintado, Bauza.

Swans made an impressive start and took the lead after just two minutes. A mix up in the heart of the Preston defence and Jordi Gomez needed no invitation, picking up the ball between the two centre halves, skipping past a challenge and passing the ball into the corner of the net with his right foot. It was the perfect start for the Swans against high flying Preston.

Swans are a team oozing confidence at the moment and an early goal was an added tonic. It wasn’t long before Swans settled into their passing game and again Nathan Dyer was catching the eye with his pace and skill.

Preston’s woes were compounded after six minutes when ex Premiership Callum Davenport limped out of the game with a shin injury.

Swans were also forced into a change when Darren Pratley came out of a challenge with giant striker Jon Parkin clutching his shoulder. After two minutes off the field when the Doctor was no doubt trying to put his shoulder back, Swans brought Guillem Bauza on to replace him.

Preston just couldn’t contain the rampant Swans attacks and as so many other sides have this season they resorted to strong arm tactics. Again the referee failed to protect the Swans players from some really poor challenges and Leon Britton in particular was targeted for some dreadful treatment.

Jason Scotland had a chance with a deflected shot that went over the bar with Andy Lonergan in the Preston goal beaten all ends up.

The perfect response to Preston’s style was another goal and it arrived on 28 minutes. A long throw out from Dorus de Vries really should have been intercepted by the full back but he seemed to be caught in two minds and Mark Gower collected the ball. Gower ran across field and threaded a great pass through to Jason Scotland. The striker who looks capable of scoring from just about anywhere at the moment, held off his marker and from quite a tight angle fired a low hard drive right into the corner of the net.

Swans continued to dominate but there were a couple of uncharacteristic errors in defence that presented Preston with a couple of half chances.

At the start of the second half being 2-0 down you would expect a team as high in the League as Preston to come out all guns blazing. However, they were again starved of possession and Swans again dominated the possession.

Nathan Dyer and Angel Rangel down the Swans right were causing Preston all kinds of problems and it was no surprise that when Swans got their deserved third goal it came from that area.

Swans were able to take Jason Scotland off on the hour to be replaced by Gorka Pintado.

Even without the top scorer they was no stopping a rampant Swans. With two defenders marking them there seemed little danger as Angel Rangel and Nathan Dyer moved down the right wing but with some intricate passing and moving Rangel’s pass put Nathan Dyer away. He got to the bye line and crossed low and hard across the six yard box for Guillem Bauza to hammer home.

There were further chances for Angel Rangel and Gorka Pintado as Swans looked to extend the lead even further.

Leon Britton, having been kicked from pillar to post all night was replaced with ten minutes to go by Owain Tudur Jones and Preston went down to ten men for the last six or seven minutes after Ross Wallace limped off after an innocuous looking challenge from Jordi Gomez after they had already made all three substitutions.

On 87 minutes Alan Tate made a terrific run down the left wing. He then cut inside onto his right foot and from fully 30 yards out bent a shot over and around Lonergan and into the top corner. It would have been a remarkable goal from a striker but for a makeshift left back it was unbelievable. Tatey would have enjoyed the crowds acclaim of ‘You Jack B####ard’.

There was still time for Preston to grab a consolation with the giant Jon Parkin showing excellent close control before threading the ball though to substitute Chris Brown who prodded home. The Swans defenders looked crestfallen and although it didn’t really matter Brown did look a yard or so offside.

Swans climb to 8th in the table and are just four points off 4th. If this form continues they can only climb further. These are exciting times.

Ratings-

De Vries 8 – Solid, reliable and even started the move leading to the second goal.

Rangel 8 – Looks every inch Premiership quality.
Monk 8 – Will be disappointed to let Parkin get the pass away for Preston’s goal but his work had been done.
Williams 8 – Assured.
Tate 8- You can’t speak too highly of his contribution over the last few weeks and they’ll be no shutting him up after his wonder goal.

Dyer 9 – Looks a real diamond.
Britton 8 – Came in for some awful challenges but rose above it all.
Pratley – Only managed 8 minutes and we can only hope he’s back soon.
Gomez 9 – Back at his best. Strolled through the game like Nijinski.
Gower 8 – Decent game but just wish he could get on the score sheet.

Scotland 9 – Excellent control, vision and yet another goal.

Subs-

Bauza 8 – Asked to play deep off Jason Scotland and did a decent job of it capping his performance with a well taken goal.
Pintado 8 – Another who it would be great to see get a goal. Ran at defenders and created space for others.
Jones 7 – Only had a few minutes but hit a couple of excellent long passes.

Swansea City 4-1 Preston North End - Match Report by Soccernet, Match Pictures by Andrew Thomas

Roberto Martinez's Swansea continued their impressive charge towards the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs with a dominant 4-1 victory over promotion rivals Preston.
The Swans showed no ill-effects from their FA Cup heroics at Portsmouth on Saturday as they made it three wins in a row in the league.

City took less than two minutes to take the lead through Jordi Gomez's shot and they went on to dominate the opening period and were good value for the second handed to them by Jason Scotland just before the half-hour mark.

Substitute Guillem Bauza tapped home another in the 69th minute and Alan Tate stroked home a late fourth.

Although Chris Brown scored a barely-deserved consolation in the final minute, the hosts never looked likely to let slip a win which puts them within touching distance of the play-off places.

City went ahead when midfielder Gomez collected a pass from Darren Pratley and fired a shot past Andy Lonergan from 12 yards.

The news did not get any better for the visitors, already without top-scorer Neil Mellor due to injury, when experienced defender Callum Davidson had to be replaced by Eddie Nolan after just six minutes.

Swansea soon had a problem of their own, though, when midfielder Pratley limped off with Bauza taking his place.

Roberto Martinez's team, who have not lost in the Championship since November, were well on top for most of the first quarter of the match without managing to create much in the way of chances.

The supporters had to wait until the 29th minute for the next goalmouth action - and it led to the Welsh side doubling their advantage.

It was Mark Gower who played a fine through ball to top-scorer Scotland who composed himself before firing low past Lonergan for his 13th league strike of the season.

With Preston's frustration growing, Paul McKenna received the first booking of the match for a foul on the influential Nathan Dyer.

Richard Chaplow finally had a shot for North End in the dying moments but his 25-yarder was off target, while Jon Parkin could only shoot over the bar from inside the box.

After the break, Bauza came close to putting the result beyond doubt in the 58th minute but his close-range shot was well tipped round the post by Lonergan.

It was a mere stay of execution, though, as the same player tapped in a third 11 minutes later. Dyer supplied the killer pass from the right-hand side of the box and Bauza was left with the simplest of tasks.

Swansea continued to push and Angel Rangel forced another good save from Lonergan before Leon Britton shot wide from the edge of the box.

Tate found the bottom corner from 20 yards to complete the rout in the 87th minute before Chris Brown scored a consolation effort in the final minute of normal time.

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