Swansea City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers: Joe Allen and Jamie Paterson on target

Swansea's only previous home win under Luke Williams had been his first game in charge in the FA Cup in January

Swansea City earned a first home league win under Luke Williams to leave Blackburn Rovers just one point above the Championship relegation zone.

The Swans had started the day below Rovers in the table on goals scored, but eased their own relegation concerns with two goals in the opening 20 minutes.

Joe Allen tapped in following good work by Przemyslaw Placheta to put the hosts in front, before Jamie Paterson's composed finished doubled their lead.

The Championship's top scorer Sammie Szmodics volleyed in from a free-kick to give Blackburn hope, but Swansea held their nerve.

Williams' side climb up to 15th in the table - four points clear of the bottom three - after securing back-to-back victories in the Championship for the first time since October.

Blackburn, meanwhile, drop down to 17th - with five of the seven teams below them only one point behind - as they still search for a first win under manager John Eustace.

Rovers had endured an exhausting fifth-round FA Cup tie with Newcastle United on Tuesday, taking their Premier League opponents to extra time before losing on penalties.

That may have been a contributing factor to their slow start here, ruthlessly exposed by Swansea who opened the scoring in the seventh minute.

Goalkeeper Carl Rushworth launched the ball to Placheta, who sped down the left wing and beat Andrew Moran before delivering a cross which Blackburn keeper Aynsley Pears could only palm towards Allen for a simple close-range finish.

In an opening 20 minutes to forget for Moran, the Blackburn midfielder was also at fault for Swansea's second goal as he dithered and lost possession to Matt Grimes. The Swans' captain then slipped the ball through to Paterson, who turned on to his left foot and fired past Pears.

Although the home side were clinical in attack, they were defensively exposed at times and had Rushworth to thank for preserving their two-goal lead as he saved from Callum Brittain and Tyrhys Dolan in the first half.

Blackburn continued to probe after the interval while, at the other end, Placheta's shot with the outside of his left boot was held by Pears.

If the mood inside the Swansea.com Stadium was at that point one of calm contentment, it soon turned to anxiety as the visitors halved their deficit.

The goal was a soft one to concede from a Swansea perspective, as John Buckley's free-kick from the right was allowed to reach Szmodics, who had the freedom of the Swans' penalty area to guide his volley into far bottom corner.

Blackburn grew in belief after scoring, though their pursuit of an equaliser did leave them vulnerable to counter-attacks and they needed a fine save from Pears to deny Swansea substitute Jerry Yates.

As time ran out, the visitors' attempts to draw level became increasingly desperate - as did the Swans' defending.

And despite a flurry of late efforts on goal from Blackburn, Swansea stood their ground to hold on for a precious win.

Swansea head coach Luke Williams:

"I think that's the bit that we need to try to improve, that we can we can see the game out in a more comfortable way.

"It was more anxious than I would have liked but I'm really proud of how courageous the players were in the latter stages of the game because the opposition had nothing to lose, threw everything forward at us and we stood up to a lot.

"We started on the front foot again. We started the game really strongly so that pleased me. But we need to improve how, rather than defend the lead, we attack a lead."

Blackburn manager John Eustace:

"I'm disappointed to lose the game. We started slowly and conceded two poor goals on our part, which hasn't been like us since I've been in.

"I thought we grew into the game and, in the first half, had three or four chances. We need to be more clinical.

"In the second half we made a few changes, we kept knocking on the door but unfortunately we just couldn't get that equaliser. The character of the group was very good - we kept going."