Swansea City 3 - 0 Blackburn Rovers

Swansea City overcame struggling Blackburn Rovers with relative ease at the Liberty Stadium today, banging in 3 goals without reply. With 4 games left for them to rescue themselves, things look bleak for Rovers now. And it can be safely said that Swansea will be playing Premier League football next season.



Date: 14 April 2012

Venue: Liberty Stadium, Wales

Scorers: Sigurdsson (37'), Dyer (43'), Scott Dann (og 63')

Yellow Cards: Hoilett (33'), Formica (90')



Teams

Swansea City: Vorm, WIlliams, Caulker, Taylor, Rangel (Garry Monk, 89'), Allen, Britton (Mark Gower, 70'), Graham (Leroy Lita, 85'), Sigurdsson, Sinclair, Dyer

Blackburn Rovers: Robinson, Hanley (Formica, 45'), Dann, Lowe, Orr, Dunn, Pedersen, Nzonzi, Olsson, Hoilett (Modeste, 56'), Yakubu (Goodwillie, 61')



In putting daylight between themselves and those stuck in the relegation mire, Swansea condemned Steve Kean's beleagured team to a fifth consecutive league defeat. That means Rovers stay 19th in the table, and are in real danger of going down unless they take more points than their opponents in each of the 4 games left for them. On the evidence of today's abject performance, that would seem as unlikely as Andy Carrol winning the golden boot this season.

After a few underwhelming performances of late, Swansea finally gave Brendan Rodgers some reason to smile as they dismantled a Rovers side that is sent out to the field more in hope than anticipation by the much maligned Kean. Rovers welcomed back Pedersen into their side, but Martin Olsson could only start from the bench. As expected, Nathan Dyer started in place of Routledge for the Swans, and it proved to be an inspired change as Dyer was at the centre of most of his team's moves.

After Yakubu had an early penalty appeal waved off by the referee, Swansea slowly increased the intensity of their attacks and started dominating. They had a penalty claim of their own that the ref refused to pay the slightest heed to- but Gylfi Sigurdsson, the man who along with Papiss Demba Cisse is the signing of the winter transfer window, got them the lead in the 37th minute with a left-footed finish that was as classy as it was expected. He had Joe Allen to thank for the assist. A few chances went begging thereafter, but the lead was doubled in the 43rd minute when Dyer scored after some good work from Scott Sinclair and Danny Graham. Blackburn only had themselves to blame as they repeatedly struggled to clear the ball from inside the box.

Swansea's relentless passing game continued in the second half, as the Blackburn players seemed to bide their team before losing it and putting the ball in the back of their own net in the 63rd minute. That came from Scott Dann, who was proven woefully inept at keeping Sigurdsson and Sinclair at bay. There was a brief period where Rovers pressed hard for a goal, during which David Dunn headed just over from close range and then hit the post, but Swansea defenders kept their cool and gave their team the clean sheet they had been craving for.