Swansea City 0 - 3 Coventry City

Grimes strikes as Coventry cruise to Swansea victory



Matt Grimes scored against his old club as Coventry City took another step towards the Premier League thanks to a 3-0 victory at Swansea City.

Grimes' 20-yard volley was one of the three Coventry goals inside 11 minutes late in the first half as Frank Lampard's team seized control of what had been an even contest.

The Sky Blues held on with comfort to secure a seventh victory in their past eight matches which means they are nine points clear of Middlesbrough at the top of the table – and 11 ahead of third-placed Ipswich – with seven games remaining this season.

Brandon Thomas-Asante opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Ephron Mason-Clark turned sharply before being caught by Ben Cabango.

Swansea then paid the price for winger Eom Jisung's failure to clear, as Frank Onyeka's cross ricocheted to Grimes and his crisp effort bounced in off the post.

Another Onyeka cross led to the third goal, with Tatsuhiro Sakamoto's far-post shot beating Swansea goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux with the aid of a deflection off Ethan Galbraith.

Some clumsy defending aside, Swansea could consider themselves unfortunate to be 3-0 down at the break.

Josh Tymon rattled the bar early on and Melker Widell drilled against the post straight after Grimes' goal, while Goncalo Franco headed inches wide from point-blank range.

But there was no sign of a Swansea comeback in the second half, with Ellis Simms and Thomas-Asante going close to extending Coventry's advantage as Vitor Matos' team saw their run of 10 home league games without defeat come to an end.

The Welsh side slip to 14th in the table, 11 points adrift of the play-off places.

Much of the focus in the build-up to this game was on Grimes, the long-time Swansea captain who was making a first return to the club since his move to Coventry 14 months ago.

Despite serving Swansea admirably during a decade in Wales, the midfielder was given an icy reception by sections of the home support.

He would have been entitled, therefore, to savour the sweet strike which brought Coventry's second goal, but opted instead to raise his hands in apology.

From that moment on, the boos from Swansea fans died down.

Ultimately, it was Grimes and Coventry who were left smiling as they cruised home in the second half despite being given plenty to think about in the first half hour.

Perhaps the story would have been different had any of the hosts' first-half chances dropped to Zan Vipotnik, although the Slovenia international wasted a presentable opportunity to pull one back in the closing minutes.

Vipotnik leads the Championship goalscoring charts with Coventry's Haji Wright in second.

The USA international missed the trip to Swansea through injury, but in truth the leaders did not miss him.

Coventry head coach Frank Lampard:

"Swansea have been in fine form at home for quite long period of time. I watched a lot of them this week and the more you watch them, the more you don't want to play them.

"They're high pressing, they're one of the highest in the league, they make it difficult to play, they can move and rotate and play well.

"They had their couple of moments, so did we. It was a typical trading game of a team that has played really well at home and us coming away and we're you know we're a good team.

"But then we took the reins - obviously goals affect the game hugely. We're very clinical in a 12-minute spell and then the second half is just how to see out a game with a counter-attack threat, so I am very happy with the players."