Swansea City have secured a excellent 1-0 win against top of the table West Brom this evening.

Mark Gower had billed this game as Swansea's toughest test of the season but they came through it not just with flying colours but with three points as well on a cold evening in the West Midlands.

And whilst we had to survive some strong West Brom pressure in the closing stages in truth it was a deserved win with the margin of victory maybe unluckly not to have been slightly bigger.

In particular in the first half Ashley Williams, Nathan Dyer and Cedric Van Der Gun could all consider themselves unlucky not to have found the net with Carson - in the case of Dyer and Williams - and poor finishing in the case of Van Der Gun the reason for the blank first half as the Swans had the better of the game.

With West Brom going into - and as it turned out ending the - evening as divisional leaders it was Swansea who looked the more composed at times with some lovely interplay between Gower, Britton, Pratley and the wide men in the first half at times leaving the home side chasing shadows.   And whilst we never had the game all our own way at the back we had the rocks that were Ashley Williams and a clear man of the match in Alan Tate shoring up anything that remotely seemed to threaten our goal for the large majority of the game.

The Swans lined up as follows

Doris

Rangel     Tate     Williams     Painter

Dyer     Britton     Pratley     Gower     Van Der Gun

Beattie

It was a warm reception for Beattie on his return to the Hawthorns although you suspect that reception was not quite as warm at the final whistle after his match winning goal but this was the icing on a very good match from the striker who is now showing his ability with his second goal in as many matches which can only bode well for the future.

As expected West Brom came at us at the start of the game but were restricted to long range shots that tested Dorus' neck muscles if nothing else as he watched them sail over his head - one in particular he would have needed binoculars to see.   Whilst the Swans themselves had a couple of long range shots it was Beattie who carved out the first real opening when he showed his strength to hold off the defender and find Dyer with a low ball across the area that was parried away by Carson in the Baggies goal.

That chance spurred the Swans into action and two corners saw Ashley Williams headers saved by Carson - the first one being a top quality save although had it been half an inch either side of him it would have been the opening goal.

The Swans were at this stage on top in the game and a fantastic move between Beattie, Gower and Van Der Gun saw the Dutchman create space in the area but one touch too many made the shot more difficult and he blazed over.

West Brom responded with their best chance of the half but again it was way over the bar although from five yards out that was some achievement and the half ended with no score on the board but Swansea more aggreived to find it that way.

Painter was replaced by Richards at half time and at this point I will say that Richards was immense in the second half and closed down an outlet that was a constant threat in the first half.

And shortly after the interval a good night got better for the Swans.   Gower and Van Der Gun combined well and sent Beattie through and his shot across Carson was low enough and powerful enough to find the corner of the net and send 1500 travelling Jacks - excellent in their support all night - into ecstasy as the Swans went one nil up.

From there it is probably fair to say we were on the backfoot in the main although the introduction of Butler combined with West Brom pushing forward created space - space that he could/should have exploited in the dying minutes - denied by a mixture of Carson and the crossbar.

The Swans were though strong at the back throughout and again further plaudits to Tate and Williams who were quite simply the two rocks at the heart of our defence that - in the main - dealt well with everything thrown at them.

Simon Cox fired wide just after being introduced as a sub but it mattered little to the Swans or their supporters as  they closed out a game and took the three points back to South Wales.

We are a team that has slowly gathered momentum and this result may well make others sit up and take notice that the management team may have changed but the football is still good but we also have a new grit about us that was missing at times last season and that can surely only be a good thing.

Roll on Saturday

Photo: Action Images

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