Match Reports

Play-offs Guaranteed After 4-1 Win

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Swansea City guaranteed a place in the play-offs this season after an excellent and comfortable 4-1 home win against Ipswich Town.

2 goals from Fabio Borini as well as strikes from Luke Moore and Scott Sinclair helped us get the vital 3 points which will extend our season by a few extra games at least.

QPR couldn’t secure promotion just yet after a draw against Hull City, while Norwich City made a step further to securing 2nd place after beating Derby County 3-2 and maintaining their 6-point gap ahead of us.

Rodgers’ side were 2-0 up after just 14 minutes, Borini opened the scoring after 9 minutes before Luke Moore doubled our lead 5 minutes later. Ipswich got a goal back after some poor defending inside the box, but the Swans quickly recovered to restore their 2-goal advantage on the half-hour mark.

Scott Sinclair added the fourth on 70 minutes from the penalty spot after Leon Britton was blatantly brought down inside the box.

Brendan Rodgers bemoaned the match scheduling ahead of today’s game, as Ipswich Town had the benefit of an extra 2 days preparation after losing 5-1 to Norwich on Thursday, but if anyone looked to be jaded due to a busy schedule it was Swansea’s opponents.

Ipswich started well and were the better team early on as De Vries was forced to parry a strong shot but the Swans soon took control when Dobbie fed Borini down the right and he finished well with a low shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

Swansea City made four changes to the team that settled for a point at Portsmouth on Saturday. Taylor and Dobbie came back into the side, along with Joe Allen, while Scott Sinclair was dropped to the bench with Moore starting up front and Borini on the left wing.

The home side were now fully in their stride and linking passes together well as Dobbie was helping to link up the attacking play, and Dyer was his usual dangerous self out on the right flank.

The 16,001 crowd had to wait just another 5 minutes for a second goal after Borini’s opener. Luke Moore, who struggled for goals early on when he first joined as Dobbie was involved again. The ball fell to the former West Brom striker and he struck a low shot from 20 yards that the keeper failed to deal with.

Jason Scotland was back at the Liberty Stadium to face some of his former Swansea team-mates but his involvement in Ipswich’s goal was about the only real positive thing he did in the entire match. The striker was a loan target earlier in the year but it was clear to see today that Borini was by far a better signing. Scotland held the ball up before passing it to Healy who struck first time to find the top corner of the net to get his side back in the game.

It was disappointing to concede such a soft goal inside the penalty area after an excellent start to the game but we only had to wait 10 minutes before we restored our 2-goal lead. Dyer put Moore through on goal and his shot was parried, but Borini was there to direct it in from just a yard out.

The Swans controlled the remainder of the match after an excellent and dominant first half display. Ipswich made it far too easy for us to play our passing game and the scoreline could have been much higher if we really went for it after the break.

Scott Sinclair came on for the start of the second half and replaced Fabio Borini, but he offered very little threat compared to the Italian. Haven said that, he did step to cooly convert from the penalty spot after Leon Britton was brought down inside the box.

Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers couldn’t have asked for more from his side as they easily beat a defensively-poor Ipswich team who will be happy to see the end of a disappointing season – not helped by their former boss Roy Keane.

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