Junior Jacks Takeover | Match Report
On Junior Jacks Takeover Day, 10-year-old Evie - who you can see interviewing her favourite player Zan Vipotnik above - joined the Swans media staff as a journalist and you can read her match report from Swansea City's thrilling draw with Middlesbrough here.
Swansea City 2 Middlesbrough 2
Swansea City and Middlesborough shared the points in a lively encounter at the Swansea.com Stadium on a sunny Easter Monday in south Wales which ended with a 2-2 draw.
Middlesborough started the game brightly, with winger Alex Bangura proving to be a menace down the right. Boro passed the ball around well, with a sustained amount of pressure leading to an early save from keeper Lawrence Vigouroux.
A series of corners for Middlesborough were followed by a period of play in which Bangura was central. Firstly he gave Boro the lead on 12 minutes, following a neat passing move, firing high into the net, although Swansea goalkeeper Vigouroux did get a hand to the ball.
Another flowing move from Boro saw Vigouroux make a save on 14 minutes, before Bangura once again found himself heavily involved, this time at the other end of the pitch.
After a better period of play from the Swans, the ball found its way to Liam Cullen in the middle of the box. He was clumsily challenged by the Boro number 27 and the ref duly awarded the penalty. Swan top scorer Zan Vipotnik made no mistake from the spot firing low down the centre of the goal past Boro keeper Sol Brynn.
Bangura’s involvement then came an end when he suffered an injury in front of the angered East Stand and was substituted on 33 minutes, replaced by Finley Munroe.
The game turned scrappy, with a series of fouls, followed by a couple of corners for Boro, the second of which resulted in a narrow miss from Boro striker Tommy Conway. The Swans fought back, breaking down he right and playing the ball into the box but Vipotnik couldn’t connect. There was more pressure from the men in white, with a cross from right falling to Widell who played it in only for Vipotnik to fire over on 42 mins
Vipotnik was back in action five minutes later, when Swansea’s South Korean winger Jisung Eom broke into the box and was fouled by keeper Brynn, giving the ref no choice but to award a second penalty to the Swans. Vipotnik took this one low to the right, beating the keeper to put the Swans in front, right at the end of the half.
Middlesborough started the half the liveliest, with some sustained attacking pressure and a couple of corners, but the Swans defended well.
Swans boss Vitor Matos looked to change the game on 54 minutes by making a triple substitution - off went Goncalo Franco, Widell and double goal scorer Vipotnik and on came Marko Stamenic, Ronald and Adam Idah.
Boro nearly equalised on 61 minutes with Aidan Morris cutting in from the left and curling the ball towards the far post only for Vigouroux to make an excellent save to push the ball out for a corner.
Middlesborough made their own triple sub on 65 minutes, with Jeremy Sarmiento, David Strelec and Riley McGree making way for Dael Fry, Sontje Hansen and Kaly Sene.
On 73 minutes the game saw its third penalty, although this one looked soft – the Boro player broke into the box and went down after minimal contact from Eom, but the referee pointed to the spot and Conway stepped up to blast the ball down the middle to equalise.
Both teams looked for a winner as the game drew to a close but neither could carve out a goal and both teams defended well to earn themselves a point.
Middlesborough will leave south Wales disappointed with not being able to capitalise on the earlier defeat for automatic promotion rivals Millwall. For the Swans it was another home game without defeat and a promising performance against a team at the top of the league.