Swansea City 0-1 Millwall: Jed Wallace free-kick gives Lions victory
- Published
Jed Wallace had two loan spells at Millwall before joining permanently from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2017
Millwall continued their revival under new manager Gary Rowett as Jed Wallace's fine free-kick secured victory at high-flying Swansea City.
A flat first-half failed to ignite despite late chances at both ends, with Wallace closest to an opening goal.
After a period of Swansea pressure in the second half, the Millwall midfielder struck with a powerful, curling free-kick.
The hosts desperately searched for an equaliser but substitute Borja Baston squandered their best opportunity, lifting a tame effort wide.
A third win from Rowett's first four games in charge lifts Millwall up to 10th in the Championship table, four points adrift of the play-off places.
Swansea now occupy the last of those spots, dropping down from fourth after a fourth defeat from their past six home fixtures.
This was a settled Swans side aiming to maintain momentum, unchanged for a fourth successive match after two wins and a draw from their previous three.
Swansea's four league defeats have all come at the Liberty Stadium
But Steve Cooper's team struggled for fluency during a scrappy start to the game, seeing plenty of the ball but lacking a cutting edge.
It was the kind of disjointed affair where a mistake felt the likeliest route to a goal, and so it almost proved when Millwall centre-back Jake Cooper was dispossessed by Nathan Dyer, before Swansea's Andre Ayew saw his shot beaten away by Bartosz Bialkowski.
Seconds later, the visitors broke and twice came close to an opening goal, first as Connor Mahoney's shot was saved by Freddie Woodman and then from the rebound as Wallace's firmly-struck shot whistled just over the bar.
Millwall finished the first half strongest but they found themselves on the back foot at the start of the second, Swansea pressing forward with George Byers forcing Bialkowski into action.
Substitute Kristoffer Peterson was the next to test the Millwall goalkeeper after a neat turn and shot, but the home side's lack of quality in the final third was to prove costly.
Wallace latched on to a long ball over the Swansea defence and, after he was brought down by Mike van der Hoorn - who was booked as Wallace seemed clean through on goal - on the edge of the area, the Millwall midfielder whipped a superb free-kick over the wall and into the net.
The Lions almost doubled their lead when substitute Jiri Skalek forced Woodman into a smart save, and it was not until the final few minutes that Swansea came close to an equaliser.
There was no shortage of effort but guile and invention was in short supply from the home side, as Rowett's side repelled them relatively comfortably.
Swansea substitute Sam Surridge then set Borja free, but the Spanish striker's lofted effort over Bialkowski drifted harmlessly wide as Millwall saw the game out to secure a first away win of the season.
Swansea City head coach Steve Cooper told BBC Radio Wales Sport: "We know that we fell short today with our performance levels.
"We're big believers in focusing on performances and think that we'll get results through that and today was not at the level required in many areas and for that we didn't get the result we wanted.
"We didn't show enough creativity and quality at the top end of the pitch to allow ourselves the opportunity to score."
Millwall manager Gary Rowett said: "It was a really nice way to end the run of games [without an away win]. The players were conscious of it and needed to do something about it.
"We've worked on a formation the last few weeks to help us away from home. We felt we needed to change something, not just from a football or tactical perspective but from a psychological perspective.
"I thought at times we did it really well. I thought we pressed Swansea in the right areas, we made it hard for them to play through us.
"We created the best chances of the match and I thought we were relatively comfortable in terms of Swansea's chances."