Swans Storm the Villa for That Away Win
Stephen Warnock
2012 started with a bang in Birmingham for Swansea City Football Club as that elusive first win on the road was secured in style against a comprehensively outplayed Aston Villa.
An early goal from a flying winger in each half did all the damage and ensured the Swans secured their first top flight away victory since 1982…and began the club’s centenary year in fitting fashion.
As expected Brendan Rodgers rang the changes from the side that performed so well against Spurs 48 hours earlier, making seven changes in all. Caulker, Britton and Danny Graham were all restored to the starting line-up, Wayne Routledge replaced Scott Sinclair and there was a first Premier League start for Andrea Orlandi in the middle of the park.
In contrast, Villa relied on the same players that had secured a shock 3-1 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. And maybe those players thought that Swansea would be easy meat in comparison to Chelsea…if so, any over-confidence was fractured into pieces within the first 250 seconds as Villa committed the football equivalent of sticking their heads in a gas oven!
Trying to stroke the ball around in “Swansealona” fashion led to Villa’s downfall and it was Stephen Warnock turning the gas oven on as his woefully short attempted pass to his centre half was picked off by Nathan Dyer, the winger advancing before firing low into the bottom corner with the help of a very slight deflection. It was very much a case of Dyer with the opener after dire by Warnock!
A terrific start for Swansea could have got even better a few minutes later as Orlandi advanced with some menace and unleashed a shot from outside the box that flew just fractionally wide of Brad Guzan’s goal frame.
It wasn’t only Swansea’s offensive game that was fully functioning though, the defensive side of things was in working order too and anything Villa tried was dealt with in efficient fashion, reducing the home side to a string of corners that came to nothing.
For Stephen Warnock, that opening howler was just the start of his problems and Dyer was having an absolute field day against him. The diminutive wideman almost grabbed his second of the afternoon as he once more ran at the Villa rearguard but his cross-cum-shot drifted just wide.
Steve Caulker was cautioned after a foul on the hapless Warnock but there was nothing doing from the referee when Gabby Agbonlahor went down easily in the box under the close attention of Neil Taylor, although to be fair the Villa man made no real claim for a spot kick.
With Orlandi pulling the strings in midfield (yes, I really did type that!) and Dyer destroying all before him the Swans were by far the more dangerous of the two sides and really should have extended their lead on the half hour mark; Dyer again made a fool out of Warnock out wide and his cross picked out Danny Graham perfectly but the striker just couldn’t get a good enough contact on the ball and it was an easy take for Guzan.
Graham had another good chance after more flowing football on the counter attack led to Orlandi pulling the ball back from the by-line but Graham’s effort from about 10 yards went wide…possibly off the hand of a Villa defender.
The home fans were getting more and more frustrated by their side’s inability to create any real chances and Swansea’s ease at keeping the ball from their opponents almost at will just made things worse. Eventually James Collins decided he’d had enough and he became the second player to receive a yellow card after a crude foul on Routledge.
The Swans were looking very dangerous going forward and coping with anything Villa threw at them, comfortably dealing with the triple threat of N’zogbia, Agbonlahor and Bent and you got the feeling that the Swans didn’t want the first half to end to allow Alex McLeish the opportunity to change the pattern of the game.
As it transpired the Swans needn’t have worried as they caught their visitors cold at the start of the second half just as they did at the beginning of the game.
A poor kick from Guzan was intercepted by Taylor who in turn fed Routledge and he skipped around Carlos Cuellar with ease before laying the ball back to Graham. It summed up Graham’s luck in front of goal that his shot came back off the post but Routledge latched onto the loose ball and drove it with his “swinger of a left foot” through a crowd of three players and into the Villa net for his first Premier League goal in over a hundred matches.
It was a sweet moment for Routledge and he certainly took the opportunity well – but Danny Graham should receive huge credit for his part in the goal as his tremendous workrate forced the initial mistake from the Villa keeper.
Soon after Cuellar signalled to the bench that he “had a problem” (most likely his fear of Routledge doing to him what Dyer had done to his teammate Warnock in the first half) and he was replaced by Alan Hutton.
The Swans made a change of their own with Orlandi’s productive afternoon coming to an end on the hour mark, but not before he’d gone into the referee’s notebook for hacking down Stephen Ireland. Joe Allen replaced Orlandi and in truth a little bit of the Swans’ forward menace went off with the Spaniard.
Richard Dunne was the next one to incur the wrath of the officials, booked by referee Taylor after a clash with Dyer. The Villa centre half should have been booked for his initial foul on Dyer but the referee let him off…only to be forced into flashing the yellow after Dunne compounded his error by shoving Dyer to the ground as his frustration boiled over.
A two goal cushion and the removal of Orlandi meant that the Swans were starting to sit further back, confident that they could deal with whatever Villa threw their way and happy to utilise the pace and trickery of their two outstanding wingers on the break. Villa needed no second invitation and started to put the away goal under pressure and Ireland came close only to see his effort blocked for a corner.
It was Ireland’s last contribution to the game as he was withdrawn in favour of Marc Allbrighton and the young Irishman left the field to a chorus of boos – not for him but for his manager who, in shades of the Wolves away game, was forced to endure chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” as he tried altering his side to rescue at least a point.
However there was to be no Wolves-like comeback in this contest as the Swans kept their concentration and defended resolutely. And there were a couple of chances to kill the game completely that went begging too, Graham thwarted by Dunne as he broke clear and then Allen denied by Guzan after latching on to a delicious through ball, a slight shirt tug by Bannan hampering Allen’s efforts.
There was time for one scare in the Swansea goalmouth as Charles N’zogbia rattled the post in the fourth of five minutes of stoppage time but the Villa player’s vicious volley hit the inside of the post and somehow bounced straight back out instead of deflecting into the goal. Anything but a clean sheet would have been harsh on the Swans defence though and the referee’s whistle soon after confirmed the shut out and, more importantly, the all important away win we’ve all been waiting for.
Verdict: Two excellent goals, a ninth clean sheet, a first away win and finally, FINALLY a Premier League goal for Wayne Routledge…it couldn’t have gone much better for the Swans. Fulham’s win against Arsenal later in the evening pushed the Swans back down a place into 12th but with an eight point cushion and a massive goal difference advantage over the current occupiers of the relegation places the Swans have started the New Year in rude health. Keep playing the way we played against Villa in the second half of the season and Swansea City will be visiting the likes of Villa Park next season for sure.
