A disappointing outcome to an entertaining if frustrating evening at the stadium.
As expected, coach Jon Beale made a number of changes to the squad that played at the weekend against Cardiff City. There were 6 changes in total and Billy Clarke reverted to right back from right wing. We were missing promising U16 midfielder Bobby Lewis, called out to international duty. Blackburn’s eleven featured ten of the starters from the club’s 8-1 victory in the last round at Coventry City. This included centre forward Valentin Joseph, who had already scored 15 goals to date this season, including 4 in that Coventry tie.
We lined up 4-3-3: Tom Wright; Billy Carke, Ben Phillips (s – Wahab Ojetero 75m), Brogan Popham, Carter Heywood; Alfie Jones (s – Harvey Gray 88m), Harlan Perry (captain), Bobo Evans (s – Milo Robinson 71m); Kai Rhodes (s – Alex Godfrey 75m), Josiah Kallicharan, Callum Jones.
Unused subs: Jack May, Jakub Nowak (g/k), Kaven Bloniarczyk
We started quickly and took the game to our Cat1 visitors, frequently looking for left winger Callum Jones to get behind the Blackburn defence. Callum was in his element and gave Rovers right back Pitt a real runaround, creating or attempting chances with both feet. We’d already created openings before Evans and then Rhodes both had shots charged down.
Blackburn felt their way into the game slowly, midfielders McCoy and Ball searching to ways to reply. Joseph scuffed a McCoy cross wide on 16 minutes and 6 minutes later McCoy worked room for himself to get a clear shot on target that Tom Wright repelled.
There was no particular needle to the match and it was surprising to see the referee book Billy Clarke early in the game.
Rhodes went close again with a run and cross shot that keeper Holt pushed away. Just before the half hour mark, another thrusting run from Callum Jones resulted in a mishit shot from Harlan Perry that Rhodes flicked into the net. It was clear though that Kai was coming back from an offside position and the goal was ruled out.
There was a sense that we really needed to score to make our early domination tell. As it was, Ball continued to look threatening from midfield and Joseph responded with a shot that went straight to Wright.
It was slightly distasteful to watch young visiting players hi-fiving each other whenever they won a free-kick. The latest in a sequence of these allowed Rovers to score on half-time when a lofted ball into the 6 yard box was seen late and Joseph snapped up the loose ball to put Blackburn 1-0 ahead.
Swansea’s moment came early in the second half when Holt, who is not an imposing size, failed to catch Perry’s inswinging corner and took the ball over his own line. Although Kallicharan was in his vicinity, the referee’s decision to award a foul rather than a goal seemed rather generous to Blackburn.
Jones continued to get to the byline, striking a shot that Holt pushed around the post. Over time, though, our over reliance on attacks down the left simply highlighted the lack of inventiveness elsewhere on the pitch.
Blackburn got a somewhat fortuitous penalty on 64 minutes when Joseph – towering over Billy Clarke – broke into the penalty area and tumbled dramatically at the merest impact. Ball’s spot kick was denied by an extremely good save by Wright.
On 71 minutes we were caught napping by a straightforward ball over the top that allowed Joseph to evade both Phillips and Popham to score what proved to the clinching second goal.
With no real way back for the Swans, changes were applied – Godfrey and Robinson making a lively impact – but Rovers looked increasingly comfortable as time drifted away.
Our youngsters made a decent fist of it. We matched and at times dominated Blackburn. An early goal when we were on top would have made such a difference. Blackburn were functional – certainly more effective than us overall in midfield – but didn’t look like a side that would score 8 goals. They stayed disciplined, exploited breaks and showed sound organisational traits, probably something Cat1 coaching brings them.
Callum Jones was undoubtedly the standout player for us, even if we struggled to get the ball out to him quite so often in the second half.
For Blackburn, McCoy, Ball and Isaac Dunn – son of former Rovers stalwart David Dunn – looked decent prospects.
Feature Image Credit: Swansea City Football Club