| Swansea City 1 v 2 Ipswich Town SkyBet Championship Saturday, 17th February 2024 Kick-off 15:00 |  |
Swansea City 1-2 Ipswich Town - Match Report Saturday, 17th Feb 2024 17:02 Goals from Nathan Broadhead and Conor Chaplin saw Town to a 2-1 victory over Swansea at the Swansea.com Stadium. Broadhead gave the Blues the lead on 13 having been played in by Omari Hutchinson, Jerry Yates levelled for the Swans in the 31st minute, then Conor Chaplin made it 2-1 on 35 with the Blues withstanding Swans pressure after the break to record their first ever double of the South Wales side. Town boss Kieran McKenna made one change with Chaplin replacing Wes Burns. Chaplin, who was left out of the XI for the first time in the Championship this season ahead of Wednesday’s 4-0 win at Millwall, came back into the centre of the three behind central striker Kieffer Moore with Hutchinson moving back out to the right. Broadhead was making his 50th Championship appearance, while Harry Clarke made his 50th appearance for the Blues. George Edmundson returned to the bench with Axel Tuanzebe dropping out of the 20-man squad. Striker Ali Al-Hamadi was also among the subs against the club where he started his career. Swansea made four changes from the team which lost 4-0 at home to Leeds on Tuesday with Kyle Naughton, Joe Allen, Ollie Cooper and Yates coming in for Bashir Humphreys, Jay Fulton, Przemyslaw Placheta and Liam Cullen. The game got under way in persistent drizzle with water spraying off the ball as it was passed across the sodden surface. The home side saw most of the ball in the early stages but without threatening as both teams sought to settle into the conditions. As the game passed the 10-minute mark, the Blues started to gain control and on 11 Massimo Luongo first struck a shot from just outside the box which looked on target until it struck Chaplin, then moments later Leif Davis hit an effort from the left of the area which home keeper Carl Rushworth palmed over. Following the resultant corner, the ball was returned from the left and Moore, booed by the Swansea fans for his previous Cardiff connections, rose high to nod wide, the wet ball perhaps sliding off the striker’s head. But the travelling Town fans behind the goal at the other end, didn’t have to wait much longer for a goal. In the 14th minute, Hutchinson battled with Josh Tymon for a loose ball a third of the way inside the Swans half and stabbed the ball forward for Broadhead, sending the Wales international through on goal. Rushworth held his ground and the Town top scorer dinked his 11th goal of the season to the keeper’s right and into the net, his first senior domestic goal in his home country. Swansea might well have levelled in the 18th minute when Jerry Yates scuffed a first time shot having been found unmarked 14 yards out from a Jamie Paterson cross following a free-kick on the right. Moore will feel he should have scored his fourth Town goal in four games in the 23rd minute when he was found at the far post from a corner from the right, but the Wales international again headed the wrong side of the post. Town continued to look the most likely scorers of the game’s second goal, although while not having it all their own way, and on 29 Chaplin found Moore on the left of the box from where the big frontman hit a shot which was too close to Rushworth. A minute later, Davis was shown the game’s first yellow card for a foul on Brazilian winger Ronald wide on the right. And from the set piece, the Swans equalised. The ball was swung into the box, Ben Cabango nodded back across goal and Yates helped it on into the net off the inside of the post. Having levelled, Swansea seemed to up the tempo and the Blues found themselves under a spell of pressure, Paterson sending over a dangerous ball in the 32nd minute which Town did well to clear. However, in the 35th minute, the Blues went back in front. Davis was sent away down the left by an excellent Burgess pass, the full-back’s excellent first touch taking him beyond his man, before he cut back to Chaplin on the edge of the area, from where the Town forward confidently smashed his 10th goal of the season past Rushworth to the keeper’s left. The Town fans at the other end gleefully celebrated a very familiar goal, Davis’s assist was the left-back’s 12th of the season, while it was Chaplin’s 50th goal for the Blues and the 100th of his career. Town went looking for a third, Davis crossing from the left in the 40th minute and a defender’s toe just taking it away from Moore. Swansea huffed and puffed as they looked for a second equaliser in the spell before the break but without causing Vaclav Hladky a serious issue. Town were worth their lead at the break having found their feet after a start in which both teams tried to get used to the conditions. Hutchinson did well to win the ball and thread Broadhead in for the forward’s well executed goal, while the Blues will be disappointed to have conceded from a set play. Davis once again did superbly down the left to create Town’s second with Chaplin showing the sort of finishing which has been the hallmark of his time at Town. The Blues struck the first effort of the second half, with the rain still falling heavily, Chaplin scraping wide from the edge of the box having been teed-up by Moore. On 49, Luongo curled an effort into Rushworth’s arms from not far outside the area after a Davis cross from the left had been nodded out to him. Three minutes later, Ronald clipped over a cross from the right and Swans skipper Matt Grimes flicked a header towards the far post which a sliding Yates just failed to reach and the ball slid wide of the post off the increasingly wet surface. The Blues were forced to soak up a spell of Swansea possession in the following minutes but without another moment of serious concern. Broadhead eventually escaped down the left before being fouled by Naughton, who was booked. Swansea continued to take the game to Town but just after the hour mark, the Blues went very close to a third. Luongo picked up a loose pass just inside the Swansea half and fed Broadhead ahead of him. The earlier scorer in turn played ahead to Moore on the left of the box from where the striker hit a shot but Rushworth reacted quickly to onto the bar and the ball bounced away from goal. The Swans made a triple change on 63, Yates, Allen and Cooper making way for Cullen, Charlie Patino and Mykola Kuharevich. Four minutes later, Town also made a treble switch, Burns, Jeremy Sarmiento and Marcus Harness replacing Hutchinson, Broadhead and Chaplin. On 69, the Swans swapped Ronald for Przemyslaw Placheta. The Blues were continuing to struggle to get out of their half but while defending resolutely - with Burgess as so often prominent - and not allowing the home side a sight at goal. On 72, clever work from Sarmiento sent Moore away on the left and the striker’s low ball for Burns was just cut out with the striker perhaps having taken too long to make the pass. There was a scare for the Blues a minute later when Cullen - red-carded in the corresponding fixture at Portman Road - hit a potentially testing shot from the edge of the box but which struck one of the bodies in front of him and was easy for Hladky. Kuharevich headed well over from a Cullen cross from the right in the 74th minute, before the Blues created an opportunity, Moore lying the ball off to Sarmiento on the edge of the box and the Ecuador international hitting a low effort which was too close to Rushworth. Swansea had their best chance of the half in the 76th minute, Tymon crossing and Cullen heading straight at Hladky when Town fans will have had their hearts in their mouths. The Blues introduced Al-Hamadi against the club where he began his career in the 79th minute for Moore, who was booed all the way to the touchline by the home fans, who will presumably be cheering for him next time he wears a Wales shirt. Al-Hamadi quickly got involved making a couple of strong runs into the area which ended with Morsy and then Harness having shots blocked. On 82, the Iraq international showed his pace as he chased a Morsy ball down the right. Sarmiento played wide to Davis on the left and the full-back was caught in two minds and eventually shot across face and well wide. The Blues switched Luongo for Lewis Travis on 84 then Swansea replaced veteran Naughton with Harry Darling a minute later. The Swans had lost something of their momentum following the stoppages for substitutions and with the Blues’ replacements having made an impact, but on 88 Hladky was forced into his first big save of the half. Darling found on the right of the box and hit a shot which caught Clarke and looped awkwardly for the Czech keeper, who reacted brilliantly to claw it away from goal. In the aftermath, the ball was crossed back in from the right and was headed wide. In the final scheduled minute, Swans sub Patino smashed a 25-yard free-kick into the Town wall. As the game moved into three minutes of injury time, Town were largely looking to see the game out but on 92 Burns chased a ball on the right of the area and hit a shot from a tight angle which Rushworth bundled onto the post, the Blues wideman allowing it to run out for a corner. The Blues prevented the Swans from causing any further threat in the remaining minutes and it was the Town fans cheering when referee John Busby blew his final whistle. Having established their lead in the first half, the Blues were forced to show all their defensive mettle in the second to see out the three points, coming through the test with flying colours, Hladky making only one serious save from Darling’s late strike. Swansea, down a place to 18th, have now lost four in a row at home and have won one in their last seven overall. It was an atypical Town victory in filthy conditions with the Blues putting in the sort of rearguard action which became commonplace in the Mick McCarthy era with Burgess once again dominant at the heart of the defence, heading away ball after ball. The win sees Town remain a point behind Southampton in second and three off Leeds in second with Town and the Saints in action in midweek in their game in hand over the Whites, who are now only nine points off leaders Leicester following the Foxes’ 2-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough. Bottom club Rotherham United, who lost 1-0 at home to Watford this afternoon, are the Blues’ opponents on Tuesday. Swansea City: Rushworth, Naughton (Darling 85), Cabango, Wood, Tymon, Allen (Patino 63), Grimes (c), Ronald, Cooper (Kuharevich 63), Paterson, Yates (Cullen 63). Unused: Fisher, Fulton, Placheta, Sagoe, Lissah. Town: Hladky, Clarke, Woolfenden, Burgess, Davis, Morsy (c), Luongo (Travis 84), Hutchinson (Burns 67), Chaplin (Harness 67), Broadhead (Sarmiento 67), Moore (Al-Hamadi 79). Unused: Walton, Edmundson, Humphreys, Jackson. Referee: John Busby (Oxfordshire). Att: 16,646.
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