Andre Ayew has been praised for his leadership as the Swansea City striker took his club’s armband and guided them to within sight of the top of the Championship.
In a comfortable 2-0 victory at home to Blackburn Rovers, Ayew’s powerful 61st minute header followed Ben Cabango’s equally forceful effort from a corner in the 25th minute to stretch the Swans’ unbeaten run to four games, with no goals conceded in the last two.
That surge has lifted Swansea to second place in the table and Reading’s first defeat of the season on Friday night means the gap between the two clubs is now just four points.
The Swans now have 18 points from their opening nine matches and far from looking weakened since the departure of Joe Rodon last month, they have become more resolute.
The win also ensured Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray’s barren return as a boss against Swansea has now stretched to seven winless matches.
“Andre is a leader, regardless of whether or not he wears the armband,” said Cooper.
“He always stands up and leads by example. He’s a massive influence at this club.
“I don’t think much changed really because he’s always 100% committed, he’s always a big talker in the dressing room.
“But in terms of his performance, he did play like a captain. Not just with the goal, but the way he ran in the second half.
“He’s in really good physical condition at the moment. That’s really paying off for him and for everybody else.”
“Not every game can be the purest, I think sometimes when you have to accept that, even though that’s what we aim for.
“But it’s also a good sign that in those games, you can keep a clean sheet against a team that have scored more goals and had more shots than any other team so far.
“It was a fantastic header from Cabango. You look at him and you can see that he’s a guy who is more than capable of doing that.
“We showed some good attributes today to win the game of football. The first half wasn’t the prettiest, truth be told. We took a while to settle.
“But, second half I thought we were better. The game was played more in Blackburn’s half which was the message at half time, to press the ball more and run more than we did in the first half, and I thought we did that.”
Swansea were not at their free-flowing best, but with goalkeeper Freddie Woodman in solid form and Blackburn’s threatening moments rarely sustained, it was a comfortable home win.
Regular Swansea captain Matt Grimes had been left on the bench by Cooper and in the midfielder’s absence Ayew stepped up.
He drew plenty of fouls and the attention of plenty of defenders – before heading powerfully home from Yan Dhanda’s accurate cross just past the hour.
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray admitted: “It was a tight match, but credit to them for digging in and getting the result.
“They are second in the league now and they are a good side. In Andre Ayew, you can see they have a class striker – one of the best in this division.”
“I’m disappointed, especially with the goals we gave away. They were unlike us. It must be two years since we gave away a goal from a direct header at a corner.
“It was a frustrating day because we had some opportunities, but one of those has to go in. We were up against a team with a very good spirit and you could feel that spirit.
Swansea took the lead from a set-piece in the 25th minute when Cabango out-muscled Darragh Lenihan to power home a header from Connor Roberts’ corner.
The second goal just came after Connor Roberts did well to release Yan Dhanda down the right and the former Liverpool man’s perfect cross was met with a firm downward header by Ayew for his sixth goal of the season.