by Adam Evans
Date: Saturday 2nd March, 2019
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Attendance: 17,880
SWANSEA City defeated nine-man Bolton Wanderers courtesy of two late goals from Oli McBurnie and Bersant Celina.
Despite the Swans piling on a lot of pressure in the first half, they were unable to find a way to open the scoring, Remi Matthews saving an Oli McBurnie penalty.
Swansea were given a confidence boost just before the break when Craig Noone saw a second yellow card for a late challenge on McBurnie. David Wheater was also shown a red card in the second half for a professional foul on Wayne Routledge.
The Swans secured the three points after McBurnie scored with 10 minutes left on the clock before Bersant Celina sealed the victory in stoppage time.
The two extra players made all the difference in the end.
Matt Grimes fired a shot from outside of the box in the third minute, but Remi Matthews was able to parry it away to safety.
Oli McBurnie very nearly assisted Dan James with 10 minutes on the clock; the youngster ran in behind the Bolton defence, but he could only fire his shot wide of the target.
Soon after, McBurnie very nearly opened the scoring himself. The Scotsman attempted to bend his effort around the keeper but again Matthews was equal to it.
With 10 minutes left of the first period, the Swans were awarded a penalty after Craig Noone took down Nathan Dyer.
McBurnie stepped up but he was denied by the keeper who was in inspired form for the Trotters.
Just three minutes later Swansea looked to have finally broken the deadlock, however Matthews was able to come to his side’s rescue once again saving a Matt Grimes free kick.
Just before half time the visitors were reduced to 10 men after Craig Noone was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge on McBurnie.
In the 65th minute James drilled a low and dangerous ball into the box which Matthews struggled to deal with but Olkowski was able to clear it off the line.
With 18 minutes left to go, Bolton had their second red card of the match after skipper David Wheater tripped Wayne Routledge when he was deemed to be through on goal.
The Swans did eventually use the two extra men on the pitch to their advantage as in the 80th minute they deservedly opened the scoring through Oli McBurnie striking a half-volley past Matthews into the bottom right corner.
In the dying moments of the game Bersant Celina doubled the home side’s lead. The substitute finished off a quick counter started by McBurnie in a cool manner.
“Any championship game is not easy, we know that. I thought we created chances and had control of the game,” said Swans boss, Graham Potter.
“I thought the player’s focus and concentration was of a real good level and understanding aswell. Just because a team goes down to 10 men doesn’t necessarily give you an advantage in the key areas of the pitch, which was what we had to overcome today.
“Overall if you look at the 90 minutes, we deserved to win.”
Bolton Manager, Phil Parkinson felt hard done by with the referee Gavin Ward’s decision to dismiss Craig Noone.
“The first sending off is a bad decision by the referee. Craig’s gone into a block challenge in the middle of the pitch and I’m not sure how you can tackle any fairer than that.
“If those tackles are yellow cards then we may aswell just rule out tackling all together in professional football.”
Today’s result sees Swansea sit seven points adrift of the play-off places and Bolton Wanderers relegation woes increase as they are seven points from safety.
Swansea City: Kristoffer Nordfeldt, Kyle Naughton, Mike van der Hoorn (C), Cameron Carter-Vickers, Connor Roberts (Courtney Baker-Richardson, 76’), George Byers (Bersant Celina, 69’), Matt Grimes, Nathan Dyer (Jay Fulton, 86’), Wayne Routledge, Daniel James, Oli McBurnie.
Bolton Wanderers: Remi Matthews, Mark Beevers, Clayton Donaldson (Jack Hobbs, 76’), Sammy Ameobi, Craig Noone, Pawez Olkowski, Callum Connolly, Gary O’Neil, Josh Magennis (Will Buckley, 56’), David Wheater (C), Luca Connell (Luke Murphy, 70’).
