Swansea blast back from two goals down to edge thriller with Reading

Posted Wednesday, October 19, 2022 by PA

Swansea produced a remarkable turnaround to beat Reading 3-2 and leapfrog them in the Sky Bet Championship table.

Reading struck twice in the opening 33 minutes through Yakou Meite and Tom Ince as the visitors sought to end their worst run of the campaign – three games without a win.

But Harry Darling halved the deficit before the interval, and second-half goals from Ollie Cooper and Jay Fulton lifted Swansea to seventh in the Championship standings with Reading dropping to ninth.

Fulton’s 74th-minute winner – seizing on to a loose ball and lashing home from 30 yards – was worthy of deciding any game and must surely rank among the best goals of the Scottish midfielder’s career.

Boss Paul Ince was back in the Reading dugout after a virus had kept him away from the touchline for Saturday’s home defeat by West Brom.

Ince had barely taken his seat when around half the lights failed and the Swansea.com Stadium was plunged into semi-darkness.

There was a six-minute delay before the situation was corrected and Swansea came close to putting Reading’s lights out.

Joe Lumley made a superb save low to his right after Michael Obafemi had turned sharply, and the Royals goalkeeper made a smart fingertip save after Ben Cabango had fired from distance.

Whereas Swansea also saw two penalty appeals waved away, Reading’s attacking threat had been negligible before they took the lead after 26 minutes.

Junior Hoilett found the unmarked Mamadou Loum and the Senegalese’s shot from the edge of the area hit Darling before Meite buried the loose ball.

Reading doubled their lead in controversial fashion when Darling dithered outside the area.

Meite had his arm around the defender, a point Swansea boss Russell Martin appeared to make to referee Andy Davies at half-time, before dispossessing him and squaring for Ince to finish with a delicious chip.

It was real smash-and-grab stuff but Swansea were given a lifeline before the break when Darling met Matt Grimes’ corner at the near post to head home his third goal of the season.

The start of the second half was a stop-start affair, but the hosts were level on the hour.

Joel Latibeaudiere’s cross was met by Reading defender Tom Holmes, but the dropping ball was perfectly dispatched by Cooper from 12 yards for his second Championship goal.

Swansea continued to probe and took the lead when Fulton’s venomous low effort from 30 yards beat the diving Lumley and went in off the post, securing a result that was merited.