Swansea City 1-0 Blackburn Rovers: Michael Obafemi header earns 10-man Swans dramatic victory

Michael Obafemi's first half header proved enough for 10-man Swansea City to earn a hard-fought victory over high-flying Blackburn Rovers.

The striker headed Jamie Paterson's cross beyond Thomas Kaminski on 16 minutes as Swansea impressed in patches.

The Lancashire outfit improved though and went on to dominate proceedings after Ryan Manning was sent off early on in the second half.

But the Swans showed a different side to their game to keep a clean sheet following a monumental defensive effort to bring an end to their three-game run without victory.

Russell Martin made two changes to the side that started against Luton Town on Tuesday night, with the headline alteration seeing Paterson return after a spell on the sidelines due to his contract dispute with the club's owners.

The 30-year-old was joined by partner-in-crime Joel Piroe, with Ryan Bennett and the injured Kyle Naughton being the pair to drop put.

Those attack-minded alterations saw Flynn Downes play at the heart of his side's defence which paved the way for Olivier Ntcham to support those up top - with Hannes Wolf operating at left wing-back.

And it meant top scorer Piroe started alongside Obafemi for the first time at Swansea - who had won just one of their last nine matches ahead of the clash with Rovers.

Such has been the transformation under the current regime at the Swansea.com Stadium, it was telling that there were only seven survivors from the 18-man squad that lost 2-1 in the reverse fixture just five months ago.

The opening stages were somewhat disjointed from both sides, which was understandable given the changes made.

But Swansea slowly found their rhythm and started to control proceedings.

And having been out of action for almost two months, Paterson took