It was scrappy, far from convincing and nothing like the Swansea City of old but none of that mattered on a day when the Welsh club picked up only their second victory in 14 league matches to climb out of the bottom three and lift some of the gloom that had descended on these parts.
A long overdue first goal of the season from Ki Sung-yueng provided the defining moment in a desperately poor game that felt more like an end-of-season relegation scrap at times. Swansea were hanging on come the end and the raucous celebrations that greeted the final whistle spoke volumes for the relief that this much-needed win delivered.
These days it is all about results not performances for Swansea, and a rare home triumph – the first since Manchester United were defeated here at the end of August when the mood at the club was full of optimism and Garry Monk was being spoken about as a future England coach – should buy their chairman, Huw Jenkins, a bit more time in his protracted search for a new manager.
While there was no shortage of effort from the Swansea players, in particular the indefatigable Leon Britton who received a standing ovation when he was substituted in injury-time, the home team never looked comfortable and could count themselves fortunate that Roger East, the referee, turned a blind eye to what looked like a nailed on West Brom penalty in the first half.
Perhaps that was the break that Swansea so badly needed to get them out of their rut. “I think we can play better, but I think we showed a different side to our game today,” said Alan Curtis, who has now picked up four points from his three games in temporary charge. “We said before the game that as much as we want to maintain our style, we have to find a way to win as well. We were under the cosh, sometimes it wasn’t pretty, a little bit un-Swansea like. But we showed enough to get us over the line and pick up three points.”
As for Albion, they are now only two points above Swansea after failing to win any of their last five league games and the lack of goals must be a concern.
Tony Pulis felt aggrieved that his team had been denied what he described as two clear penalties. Albion’s manager certainly had a strong case with the first of those appeals, when Àngel Rangel clearly fouled Chris Brunt just inside the area – although the second was harder to call and it looked as though Callum McManaman was going to ground before Britton made contact with him.
“The first one is a stonewall penalty,” Pulis said. “The lad actually goes for the ball but Chris just touches it away, and he goes through him. And then Callum, we’ve seen that again and the lad catches him. We had a penalty given against us last week against Bournemouth which is outside the box, two today that we should have had, two against Leicester that we should have had.
“We’re really disappointed. There is no way if there was any justice that we should be coming away from this place with no points. But there you are. We have to get on with it, you can’t get in your mind that these decisions are going against you.”
Albion have now gone five games without a win, their worst run since Pulis was appointed manager almost a year ago.
Swansea’s goal came from the best move of the game by a distance, although there was an element of good fortune about the way Boaz Myhill was unable to keep the ball out. Rangel linked with André Ayew, who laid the ball off for Wayne Routledge to slide an incisive pass into the path of the marauding right-back. Running into the inside-right channel, Rangel drilled a low shot that hit the near upright, struck the prone Myhill on his right elbow and slipped out of the Albion goalkeeper’s grasp as he tried to lay his left hand on the ball.
Ki, from all of two yards, gleefully swept home. “We hope it will be a turning point,” said Curtis, who singled out Britton for special praise. “Leon was outstanding and he’s been so fundamental to this team for the last 10 or 11 years.”
