Gorka Pintado scored his first goal for ten months as the Swans moved into fourth with victory over Leicester City

Back in the summer the offer of free season tickets if Swansea City won promotion to the Premier League seemed like a pipe dream that would surely not happen.   It seems almost inconceivable after the summer of distraction that saw Roberto Martinez rip the heart and the family silver from the club leaving Paulo Sousa to pick up the pieces.

An opening day defeat at Leicester did nothing to alleviate those thoughts but almost six months on as the Championship's opening day fixtures repeated themselves the Swans moved into fourth place in the table despite the poor statistic of scoring just 22 times in their 25 fixtures to date.

Evidence of why that statistic is so was on display today with the only real threat to Leicester's goal resulting in the goal just past the half hour mark scored by Gorka Pintado - his first goal since 14th March last year when he netted at the Liberty against Crystal Palace.

But with just 19 goals conceded and a grit and determination about the side you would not be in a hurry to bet against the Swans ending the season in the top 6 and if Paulo Sousa's prediction this week was true that would mean that this time next year it could be the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea in line for trips to Swansea.

But those thoughts will be on hold for the next 21 games at least as the Swans will have further tests to come but with these two amongst the leading candidates for those magical places come May then there is a reason to believe that we can continue and grind out the results as we have done for so much this season.

The Swans - as ever - sprung some changes in their starting line up - surprisingly Ashley Williams was relegated to the bench leaving a starting line up of

Dorus

Rangel     Monk     Tate     Bessone

Dyer     Britton     Pratley     Allen     Cotterill

Pintado

The game almost from the opening exchanges took the pattern of many home performances with the Swans having plenty of possession but never really looking threatening to Chris Weale in the Leicester goal whose closest worry in the first period was a defender flicking the ball past him as he jostled for position with Pintado.

At the other end Leicester were never that threatening although Matty Fryatt spooned over when well placed with Dorus out of position but that was the height of their danger in the first half as they set themselves to allow the Swans the possession even if it was without the cutting edge.

Leicester though had already had warning of the pace of Dyer before he set up the opening goal.   Minutes before the goal came Dyer had burst down the right and hit a cross over Weale's head only to see the defender put it out for a corner before Allen could get there although inexplicably the referee (five yards away) overturned his decision on the advice of a linesman (45 yards away) and gave a goal kick instead.

It was almost a repeat on 32 minutes though when Dyer's cross again lofted over Weale's head and found Pintado who hit it into the empty net to give the Swans the goal that they so desperately wanted.

That was it for the first half but it had spurred Leicester into action and they ended the half on the front foot for the last few minutes which set the second half up nicely now that their game plan of playing for the point had been undone by the Pintado goal.

No immediate changes at half time saw the Swans open with some sloppy play where they gave the ball away more cheaply than anyone at the Liberty (bar the 900 Leicester fans) would have liked.

MArtin Waghorn was introduced just about on the hour mark and felt he should have had a penalty almost immediately when he went down under Allen's challenge and I bet there was more than one relieved person in the Liberty when the referee waved play on.

The game was becoming more end to end as Leicester pushed forward and the Swans tried to capitalise on some of the spaces but all too often the ball never broke the way that they wanted and Leicester were perhaps looking the more likely to score.

But despite that it was only a couple of minor scares for the Swans as they changed things by bringing on Serran for Allen and Ash and Beattie for Bessone and Pintado to try and shore things up a little.

There though was to be no repeat of the previous two encounters with Leicester this season which saw the Foxes come back from a goal down to beat us and this time the Swans held on to lift themselves into 4th place in the Championship table and no doubt there were plenty leaving the Liberty tonight dreaming of what may be coming in the next few months.

It's good to dream

Photo: Action Images

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