Swansea 2-0 Huddersfield 14th Oct 2017

Swansea 2-0 Huddersfield

Home team scorers
Tammy Abraham 42
Tammy Abraham 48

If this is the result that sparks life into Swansea City’s season then two individuals will be owed particular thanks. One will be Tammy Abraham, whose goals either side of half-time again demonstrated his old-fashioned scoring instinct and ended a troubling run of three straight home defeats. The other will be Jonas Lossl, the Huddersfield goalkeeper, whose grievous mistake led to the striker’s first at a time when Swansea, their confidence dwindling, looked the less threatening of two flawed teams. Lossl’s commitment to playing from the back resulted in a costly loss of possession that turned the match on its head, and Swansea ran out justified winners in a game where anything else would have put Paul Clement under mounting pressure.

Swansea had begun the match as if well-schooled in that message and an early booking for Leroy Fer, who had done well to keep the ball in play before following through on Lossl, suggested a brisker tempo than they have generally served up this season. They forced several errors and, from one, Carroll sent Abraham away with a first-time loft over the defence. Lossl, flicking Abraham’s shot around his right post, saved sharply to keep the scores level but it was enough to raise the volume: eight minutes in, Swansea had managed just their 12th shot on target of the campaign.

The resulting corner brought a shot from Jordan Ayew, which deflected wide; Swansea looked sharp but their momentum was gradually checked. Huddersfield had been slow from the blocks but improved after Jonathan Hogg won the ball cleanly from Leon Britton with a rattling challenge near halfway. It won the applause of his manager, David Wagner, and his team-mates appeared to take the cue. Elias Kachunga angled a shot at Lukasz Fabianski and then Tom Ince, found unmarked by Rajiv Van la Parra, should have done much better than sweep over on the half-volley.

Ince escaped the Swansea defence again on the half-hour when Lossl’s quick-thinking drop-kick sent him bearing down on Fabianski. By the time he entered the penalty area Martin Olsson had caught up and Ince, falling to the ground with the left-back in close attendance, claimed a penalty. A red card would also have resulted had the unmoved Paul Tierney seen a foul; replays suggested the pair had run across each other but there appeared to have been some contact.

By now Swansea were drifting and Lossl’s gift was perfectly timed. The obvious action, putting dogma to one side, would have been to boot the ball well clear when he received a backpass with Carroll and Ayew both in his eyeline. There was no short pass on offer but he attempted one anyway, miscuing to Carroll and unable to intervene as the midfielder drove forward down the left, squaring for Abraham to finish unfussily.

It was, by three minutes, that rarest of beasts: a first-half goal at home for Swansea. The second half had barely started before bringing one of its own. Aaron Mooy, introduced at the interval to give Huddersfield more midfield control, diligently tracked a burst towards the box by Luciano Narsingh but his tackle only succeeded in diverting the ball through to Ayew. The forward’s angled dink over Lossl may well have been creeping over the line but Abraham, ever the poacher, darted in to make sure.

Now Swansea enjoyed the luxury of having an opponent where they wanted them. What followed was largely an exercise in game management through sensible possession and watchful appreciation of Huddersfield’s occasional threat. That manifested itself most clearly eight minutes from time when Van la Parra’s shot was deflected onto the top of the bar, moments after Abraham had fallen just short from reaching an Ayew centre and scoring his hat-trick. He was not to take home the match ball, but Swansea had already benefited from an unexpected keepsake of far greater consequence.

Guardian