Captain Ayew scores in Swansea City’s loss to Blackburn Rovers

Sports News for Sunday, November 1, 2020

Source: goal.com

2020-11-01

Swansea City beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 in Saturday’s Championship match, with Ghana’s Andre Ayew among the scorers.

With the Riversiders threatening to erase their one-goal deficit, the 30-year-old guaranteed victory for Steve Cooper’s men a minute after the hour mark.

The hosts entered the game after silencing Stoke City in their penultimate outing Tuesday at Liberty Stadium.

For the Rovers, they came to South Wales as the division’s top scorers, with 18 goals in eight games. Against the Swans, however, they couldn’t beat goalkeeper Freddie Woodman on loan from Newcastle United.

Adam Armstrong’s first chance of the game was in the opening minutes, though his shot went wide despite passing over Ben Cabango.

As the game progressed, the confidence of the hosts grew. Jamal Lowe came close to scoring the first goal after grabbing onto Yan Dhanda’s pass.

However, they took the lead in the 25th minute with Cabango returning to the starting eleven, showing great strength to contain Darragh Lenihan’s challenge to head the Conner Roberts corner.

Tony Mowbray’s team appeared to respond with Joe Rankin-Costello drifting off Lewis Holtby’s handsome center. At the edge of the break, the left-back was involved at the other end when the Swans called for a penalty rejected by referee Dean Whitestone.

Blackburn Rovers came out stronger in the second half seeking a draw, but it was the Swans who doubled their lead in the 61st minute thanks to substitute captain Ayew, who headed goalkeeper Aynsley Pears with a sumptuous cross from Yan Dhanda.

Even with the deficit of two goals, the visitors continued to fight but returned home with their heads down. Saturday’s victory was the Swans’ first in four attempts against the Rovers.

Ayew, who now has four goals in the 2020-21 Championship campaign so far, was in action from start to finish, as was Namibia international Ryan Nyambe for Blackburn Rovers.

With five wins in nine games, Cooper’s men are second in the league after racking up 18 points, three points behind the leaders, Reading. They travel to Brentford for their next game on November 3.