Unbeaten Away Run Continues With Win At Table-toppers

Swansea City are proving to be this season’s surprise package in the Sky Bet Championship but on Saturday afternoon, they suffered their first home league defeat of the season, as West Ham United followed up their 6-0 midweek trouncing of newly-promoted Lincoln City by beating the Swans 1-0 in South Wales.

It was thought that Nuno Espírito Santo might have made wholesale changes for this game but instead, he decided that only one was needed from the triumph against the Imps at The ProAmpac Stadium, as Divine Mukasa took the place of Joël Piroe in the starting line-up with the Dutchman dropping to the bench against his former club. Oliver Scarles, Airidas Golambeckis and Lewis Orford were once again included in the matchday squad.

Both sides went into this game off the back of impressive away wins in the week and given their respective positions in the table, they were keen not to give much away here.

The fact that the Hammers had to travel to Lincolnshire on Wednesday before coming here didn’t seem to phase them one bit, as they started the better of the two sides.

Having said that though, the hosts have done well under the stewardship of Portuguese Head-Coach Vítor Matos so far this season, but they fell behind on thirty four minutes when the Manchester City loanee gained possession from Marko Stamenić and started a counter-attack, which also involved both Pablo Felipe and Mohamadou Kanté. The Frenchman pulled the ball back and the midfielder placed the ball past Lawrence Vigouroux in the home side’s goal. That brought loud cheers from the large travelling contingent, whilst silencing the raucous majority.

In the last five minutes of the half, the visitors survived the game being completely turned on its head as the home fans saw their striker Ronald try his luck with a powerful shot but thankfully, a deflection off Kanté took it over visiting goalkeeper Mads Hermansen’s bar.

The noise levels rose soon after as those in black and white saw Welsh international Ben Cabango’s shot hit the underside of the crossbar, following a deep Josh Tymon corner. The saving grace for the Irons though was that the ball hadn’t crossed the line.

At this point, Espírito Santo’s men were in an identical position to Wednesday. Could they do the same as they did that night and push on here? Well, it was fair to say that when the action restarted, they tried their hardest. The problem was that every time they went close to increasing their advantage, they came up against an inspired Vigouroux in the hosts’ goal with the former Leyton Orient stopper making save after save.

After finally notching his first goal for the club three days ago, Felipe was desperate to get another one here. However, Vigouroux was quickly off his line to prevent that from happening.

Just after the hour mark, the Hammers’ Head-Coach decided to change his attacking options, meaning that Felipe made way for Valentín Castellanos.

The team from South Wales were sensing an opportunity but fortunately, Adam Idah didn’t make the most of the chance.

West Ham were starting to feel the pressure as their second win in three days was edging closer. on sixty six minutes, Cabango passed up a golden opportunity to get his team level when he was on the end of a left-wing cross from Moussa Yeo. However, to the delight of those in the away end, he dragged the ball wide.

Three minutes later, Espírito Santo decided to shuffle his pack again, as Edvin Austbø took the place of Kanté.

The Irons were still managing to keep their opponents at bay and minutes later, the momentum of the game shifted again when Manor Solomon had the chance to seal the points but unfortunately, he couldn’t send his curling shot into the back of the net after being played in by captain Jarrod Bowen.

More substitutions entered the fray for West Ham, as both Piroe and Tomáš Souček came on for Mukasa and Solomon.

The East Londoners may well replace the Swans at the top next time out, provided the can beat Southampton in Stratford on Saturday afternoon.