English nPower Championship Playoff Final 2011: Swansea Wins 4-2, Earns Promotion

Swansea are Premier League bound after a 4-2 victory over Reading in the nPower Championship playoff final, becoming the first Welsh team to reach the top flight of English football*. It was a game that’s probably best described as ‘absurd’, with Swansea earning a 3-0 first half lead despite playing rather poorly (Reading didn’t deserve to go into the break down by one, let alone three) before proceeding to very nearly throw said lead away and letting their opponents right back into the game. A late Scott Sinclair penalty seals the win, but it was by no means as emphatic as the scoreline suggests.

*It’s a historical thing. Most Welsh sides are not eligible.

For some reason, the commentators are saying that Swansea have less composure and that Reading are pressing higher in the second half, which is manifestly untrue. Reading have been dominant all game, and were only down by three thanks to a freak series of events. This second half is going just about the way the first half should have. It’s 3-2 Swansea with less than twenty-five minutes to go.

After an absolutely dreadful first half, Reading are on the verge of an absolutely unbelievable comeback, as they have scored two goals in the second half, both off corner kicks, to bring their once 3-0 deficit down to 3-2. While the first goal was created by a combination of poor marking and creative set piece play, this one was an old-school goal.

The corner was swung into the far post in the 57th minute and the captain Matt Mills out-jumped everyone, getting to the ball at a very high point. He hit a powerful header into the back of the net and just like that, Reading are very much back in the tie.

Coming back from three goals is a lot more difficult than coming back from two, and Noel Hunt has just ensured that Reading are just 3-1 down rather than 3-0 mere minutes into the second half of the 2011 nPower Championship playoff final. The Royals started the second half much in the same way as they began the match, putting Swansea’s defence under immense pressure and forcing them into errors. This time, however, they’ve received a reward for their far post.

Jobi McAnuff’s corners have been superb all game, and Noel Hunt has finally taken advantage of that, making a diagonal near-post run to glance a header past Dorus de Vries and into the back of the net. Is that going to give Reading much hope of a comeback? No, probably not, but it’s certainly more hope than they had at the end of the first half. They deserve to be in this one, too.

What a strange half of football. Reading find themselves 3-0 behind Swansea in the nPower Championship playoff final despite arguably being the better team. Considering how the game has gone, this is a completely implausible scoreline, but a Scott Sinclair brace (the first a penalty and the second a tap-in thirty-eight seconds later) and a classy finish by Stephen Dobbie have more or less assured the Welsh side of a place in the top flight next season.

Reading have had their fair share of close chances - they might have gone ahead in the second minute after Dorus de Vries made a complete hash of a cross and the ball ended up pinballing around the Swansea area and they’ve had several chances to get themselves back into the game that somehow haven’t gone it. Phil Dowd hasn’t done the Royals and favours either, denying them a possible penalty and handing out yellow cards like they’re going out of fashion. So, disaster for Reading, rapture for Swansea. Forty-five minutes left to play at Wembley.

3-0 Swansea and that’s got to be game over, despite Reading seemingly able to carve through the Swansea defence like butter. Dorus de Vries has been making an absolute mess of things all match, and he has to rely on his back line to scramble clear after mishandling a pair for crosses (scrambling being the best wortd for what Swansea have been doing all match), but he will be remarkably unconcerned with a poor performance as he sees his side go yet further ahead.

Reading nearly get the goal they deserve after a decent delivery by Jobi McAnuff is glanced just wide of Dorus de Vries’s near post by Noel Hunt following yet another spell of pressure from the Royals. It’s a bit of a mystery as to how on earth they can be 2-0 down to Swansea right now - they’ve had the vast majority of the game thoroughly under their control and Swansea had absolutely zero right to have scored once, let alone twice.

Oh, and things get worse for Reading, as Swansea grab another goal straight from the restart, robbing their opponents and marching upfield, splitting the Reading defence down the right. A low cross courtesy of Stephen Dobbie is hammered across the six-yard box and Federici can only parry it (very weakly) straight into Sinclair’s path at the far post. With an open goal two yards away, it would be impossible to miss, and Sinclair gleefully claimed his second goal in less than forty seconds, making it 2-0 Swansea. Nightmare for Reading.

Dearie me. Swansea might look dangerous going forward but their six defensive players look like they’re pub footballers right now against a well-armed Reading attack. They’re simply failing to stay composed under pressure, which is resulting in things like not botherring to clear the ball and running straight into their opposition 30 yards from goal. Another ludicrous goalmouth scramble eventually leads to a Reading corner, the first for either team in the match, but it’s wasted and Swansea are allowed to escape.

We are underway int he 2011 nPower Championship playoff final, and we’ve had an action-packed match so far. Reading are pressing their Welsh opponents very high up the pitch, and that’s paying off as it leads to a series of Swansea errors, culminating in a low cross that Dorus de Vries made an absolute mess of. The ball bounced around the penalty area with de Vries prone for several heart-stopping seconds before Swansea could finally clear their lines - Reading were literally within inches of taking the league here.

Of course, Swansea are doing more than defending - Scott Sinclair won a dangerous free kick with one of his trademark slashing runs, but Fabio Borini completely wasted the effort, skying the ball well over Adam Frederici’s goal from about nineteen yards. Sinclair found himself a victim of another foul seconds later, this time seeing his opponent Andy Griffin receive a booking for a two-footed tackle from behind. End to end stuff so far, still 0-0 nine minutes in.

Substitutes: Alex McCarthy, Jay Tabb, Simon Church, Hal Robson-Kanu, Brian Howard, Shaun Cummings, Alex Pearce.

Swansea (4-2-3-1): Dorus de Vries; Angel Rangel, Garry Monk, Ashley Williams, Alan Tate; Nathan Dyer, Leon Britton; Stephen Dobbie, Joe Allen, Scott Sinclair; Fabio Borini.