Back at the stadium in front of a young and boisterous crowd, our U21 secured a 2-0 victory over Burnley.
It’s no exaggeration to say we should have been 5 or more goals ahead at half-time – we passed up numerous opportunities as we totally controlled the contest. Burnley undoubtedly had a stern talking to and gave a much more competitive performance after the interval. Kit Margetson made a string of spectacular saves to enable us to keep a clean sheet.
We started with a slightly imbalanced 4-4-2 line-up, with Josh Ginnelly featuring on the far left of Morgan Bates up front and Sammy Henia-Kamau displaying good discipline to stay on the right side of midfield: Kit Margetson; Josh Pescatore, Iestyn Jones, Arthur Parker, Jack Fanning; Sammy Henia-Kamau (s – Callum Deacon 77m), Dan Watts (s – Zac Jeanes 90+3m), Jacob Cook, Ben Lloyd (s – Thomas Woodward 83m); Morgan Bates, Josh Ginnelly (s – Ramon Rees-Siso 46m).
Unused sub – Sam Seager.
Burnley featured former Swan Jack Cork among their coaching staff. Our former academy midfielder Charlie Veevers started in central midfield and another academy and ex-Penybont player Tom Tweedy started to his left.
The tone was set when we spurned an early chance, Henia-Kamau being set up by Bates, but he could only direct his shot straight at the Burnley goalkeeper. Bates, Ginnelly and Pescatore were prominent in the early stages. Our midfield was notably looking to set Ginnelly and Bates clear in space. On 11 minutes, Bates finished clinically from close range when another cross wasn’t dealt with by a harassed visiting defence.
We continued to carve out chances – Ginnelly, Parker, Bates, Watts and Lloyd all coming close – and Burnley were limited to a single opportunity when Veevers got Ryan clear on the right, but Tweedy couldn’t control the resulting cross.
Burnley were frequently getting caught in possession, Cook, Watts and Bates hunting down hesitant opponents. On 27 minutes, Ginnelly and Lloyd combined on the edge of the area to find Cook in space to score with a cracking firm strike.
Right on half-time, Burnley finally threatened – Tweedy getting some room to deliver a strong shot that Margetson got a firm hand to, keeping the Swans 2 up at the interval.
Josh Ginnelly was relieved at half-time, Ramon Rees-Siso replacing him on the left.
Burnley came out a more determined proposition, sometimes overstepping the mark with some vigorous challenges and gamesmanship. Vetro cut inside from the right to test Margetson with left footed drives, Ryan shot over in space, centre half Campbell found the ball at his feet from a corner but his effort was charged down.
Burnley had already introduced 3 substitutes after the hour, kept pushing but couldn’t break down a resilient Swansea defence, in which Iestyn Jones and Arthur Parker were outstanding.
Matters got increasingly scrappier and bad tempered in the closing quarter of an hour. We kept our discipline – even though the age of the team was further reduced with substitutions – and deservedly earned the points and the clean sheet. A worthy win.