Swansea 0 - 0 AFC BournemouthSwansea’s Leroy Fer squanders gilt-edged chance to beat Bournemouth
Swansea City have stopped the rot and avoided a fifth successive league defeat, yet this was neither the result they wanted or needed on a day when Leroy Fer squandered a wonderful late chance to give their season the lift it so badly needed and to ease the pressure on Paul Clement. It was the defining moment of the match and ended with Fer holding his head in his hands after filing a contender for miss of the season.
Cutting in from the left and leaving a trail of Bournemouth defenders in his wake, the Dutchman’s eyes must have lit up when the goal yawned invitingly in front of him after Asmir Begovic only managed to parry his first effort. Fer tried to clip the rebound into the net with his left foot but somehow sliced it wide.
It was a reprieve for Bournemouth and one that they nearly took advantage of in injury time, when Charlie Daniels screwed a low, left-footed shot across the face of goal and beyond the far post.
It would be fair to say that the game was a slowburner. Bournemouth made the brighter start, dominating possession and looking dangerous down the Swansea left, where Joshua King caused problems with his movement and pace. There were only a few minutes gone when King escaped on that flank and delivered a low centre that Marc Pugh, arriving unmarked, scuffed harmlessly into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski.
It was a decent chance and proved to be one of the few moments of goalmouth action in a disappointing opening 45 minutes.
Swansea improved as the half went on, yet there was nothing particularly cohesive or threatening about their play as Clement tried a fresh approach. The Swansea manager sprung a surprise by giving Roque Mesa, the £11m summer signing from Las Palmas, only his second league start of the season. Another change to the team was enforced, with Federico Fernández, the Swansea captain, flying home to Argentina on Friday following the death of his father.
As has been the case since the start of the season with Swansea, it was hard to see where a goal was coming from even when they started to see more of the ball. Swansea did, however, think that they had taken the lead in first half injury time but Stuart Attwell, the referee, penalised Jordan Ayew for a foul on Nathan Aké just before Wilfried Bony swept his shot into the roof of the net. Swansea were furious and Attwell was surrounded by home players when he blew the half-time whistle only seconds later. It was a big call but television replays did appear to show that Ayew shoved Aké out of the way.
Bournemouth seemed to be playing a little within themselves, although King was a threat whenever he got on the ball. The striker had a reasonable opportunity two minutes before the interval, when Pugh picked him out just inside the Swansea penalty area, but his stabbed shot lacked conviction and was straight at Fabianski.
Swansea started the second half with much more positivity and intensity, taking the game to Bournemouth and pinning them back for periods. They had plenty of momentum and got into some decent attacking positions at times but were still finding it hard to break Bournemouth down, so much so that Begovic had little to do until the final 10 minutes.
Bournemouth’s threat was sporadic but there were moments when the visitors stretched Swansea on the counter-attack and it took a superbly-timed sliding tackle from Mesa, who was already on a booking, to thwart one potentially dangerous break upfield.
Tempers then flared as Jordon Ibe, Martin Olsson and Ki Sung-yueng all picked up yellow cards following an off-the-ball skirmish.
The game was increasingly scrappy and stop-start, with Mesa requiring lengthy treatment and a bandage around his head after being caught by King’s flailing arm. Then came Fer’s gilt-edged chance to snatch victory.
Guardian