Report | Swansea City 0 Coventry City 2
Swansea City fell to defeat at the Swansea.com Stadium as two first-half goals gave Coventry City victory.
Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas-Asante were on the scoresheet for the Sky Blues as they beat the Swans for the first time in 44 years.
The Swans best chance of the game came courtesy of a Liam Cullen header, which was saved by Coventry keeper Oliver Dovin, while the Wales international also saw a pair of shots blocked.
It was not the way the hosts wanted to mark Ben Cabango’s first game as club captain, but they could have few complaints with the outcome.
Cyrus Christie and Jay Fulton had come into the starting line-up as the hosts changed system to three at the back.
The visitors had won three in a row coming into the contest, and they started confidently and moved the ball around crisply.
Hannes Delcroix covered well to block a Milan van Ewijk cross after the full-back had burst into space down the Coventry right.
Lawrence Vigouroux gathered inside his six-yard box as Jack Rudoni tried to pick out Thomas-Asante.
But they did take the lead in the 15th minute. Simms showed his strength to hold the ball up on the right and feed the supporting Thomas-Asante, and then got on the end of his teammate’s driven cross, taking a touch before sending a volley into the net.
At the other end, Ronald scuffed an intended volleyed pass after being picked out by Goncalo Franco before Fulton sent a volley into the net, but the referee had already blown for handball against Cabango.
Bobby Thomas planted a free header over the bar at the near post for Coventry when he met a Victor Torp free-kick.
Vigouroux made a tremendous save when Thomas-Asante looked to turn in Liam Kitching’s low cross 10 minutes before the break.
Swansea then produced a fine move after keeping possession patiently, with Vigouroux’s diagonal ball springing Josh Tymon into space. The full-back drove on and delivered an excellent cross which came through to Liam Cullen, who saw his shot blocked.
Cullen soon had another chance, another superb Tymon delivery picked out the Wales international, and Oliver Dovin palmed his header away for a corner.
Instead it was Coventry who struck next, Franco was unable to control an pass infield to him, and Thomas-Asante pounced to launch the ball goalwards from 35 yards, with a backtracking Vigouroux unable to keep the ball out of the net.
That left the Swans two goals down at the interval and the size of the deficit would have increased had Thomas-Asante made clean contact with van Ewijk’s low cross after the home side had failed to clear their lines.
Williams turned to his bench, bringing on Ollie Cooper on his return from injury, with Zan Vipotnik also introduced as Josh Key and Florian Bianchini made way.
But the next big chance went the way of the visitors Vigouroux getting a foot to Rudoni’s low effort, before Cabango managed to block another effort from the Coventry midfielder over the bar.
Cullen saw a shot deflected over the bar after he had met a clever short corner from Tymon, just after the ball had not fallen kindly as Christie attempted to get away a volley.
Ronald then got in down the right, but was unable to find Vipotnik at the far post and the chance was lost as the Swans were defeated.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Cyrus Christie, Ben Cabango (captain), Hannes Delcroix; Josh Key (Ollie Cooper 59); Jay Fulton (Myles Peart-Harris 77), Gonçalo Franco, Josh Tymon; Liam Cullen (Jisung Eom 77); Ronald, Florian Bianchini (Žan Vipotnik 59).
Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Josh Ginnelly, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Kyle Naughton, Sam Parker.
Coventry City: Oliver Dovin, Bobby Thomas, Jack Rudoni (Tatsuhiro Sakamoto 79), Jamie Allen (captain), Ellis Simms (Norman Bassette 89), Liam Kitching, Jake Bidwell, Joel Latibeaudiere, Brandon Thomas-Asante (Josh Eccles 84), Milan van Ewijk, Victor Torp (Raphael 89).
Unused Substitutes: Brad Collins, Luis Binks, Jay Dasilva, Ryan Howley, Callum Perry.
Referee: Sam Allison
Attendance: 15,189