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They put one effort wide of the right hand post, another wide of the left hand post, hit the bar and scored the early goal as the Clarets looked all at sea, until we did something about it and switched Martin Paterson and Ross Wallace, thus bringing to an end their domination.
I'd arrived at the Liberty Stadium with some confidence of getting a result. Brian Laws named the team that had beaten Leicester a week earlier and we took the game to Swansea right from the start with the home side hardly being able to get a touch on the ball in the first three minutes.
We came very close to a goal in that start but things changed very quickly and very dramatically. Swansea found the route through Burnley's defence, down our left hand side where Danny Fox was left exposed time and time again against Dyer, who if nothing is quick, and Tate, and it was obvious it was going to cause us problems.
They should have scored from a Dyer cross but then did from Tate's delivery, although there is no doubt the assistant should have raised his flag for offside against Tate as the ball was played out to him. It wasn't even close, but incredibly Tate was allowed to continue and when David Cotterill missed his chance it was left to Scott Sinclair, who had got in front of Tyrone Mears, to put Swansea in front.
Stephen Dobbie, who turned down the opportunity to play Premier League football with Blackpool, should have got a second but missed from close range and then Darren Pratley hit the bar as Swansea really put us to the sword.
Just past the 20 minutes, Sinclair got clear and only a good piece of goalkeeping from Brian Jensen prevented him from doubling both his own and Swansea's tally. That, though, proved to be it from them as we sorted things out, and they didn't really offer too much of a threat for the rest of the game.
Unfortunately the damage was done, and we didn't ever recover it, although we certainly should have done before half time. Martin Paterson and Dean Marney both came close and Wade Elliott saw a run into the box blocked, but the best opportunity fell to Chris Iwelumo who failed to get on the end of a cross from Wallace.
Had that gone in, and it should have done, we would have gone in level at half time. We certainly wouldn't have deserved it, given the opening period, but it would have set the second half up for us.
As it was, we were still behind, and just before the break Mears picked up the first yellow card of the afternoon and that was to prove crucial.
The second half started with two attacks from Swansea. The second of them saw Jensen make another good save. The goalkeeper, under pressure now for his place, was in good form throughout.
The first of the two incidents again proved very crucial. The influential Pratley went down under a challenge and as he turned to appeal for the penalty he saw referee Steve Tanner waving a yellow card at him for diving.
Did he take a dive? Should it have been a penalty? I've no idea; I was at the other end of the ground with no possible chance of being able to determine whether the decision was correct or not. What I will say is that the referee was close to the incident, but when has that ever meant they got decisions correct?
Burnley quickly changed things. Pato went up front with Elliott moving onto the right, as we went for a 4-4-2 formation, but we hardly got chance to test it as both sides soon found themselves down to ten men.
Pratley went first for a foul on Mears, bringing his second yellow card in ten minutes. There were no arguments from the Swans' midfielder who appeared to offer an apology to Mears before making his way off.
Eleven against ten; would it make things easier for us? Initially it was ten against ten with Mears having gone off, after receiving treatment on the pitch, waiting for his return to be signalled. When it was he went straight into a challenge and got his second yellow.
When a player is fouled, to the extent that the player committing the foul is sent off, it does seem somewhat ridiculous that he then has to leave the field because he's received treatment. Had he been allowed to stay on then he would have been nowhere near Dyer. It's not an excuse from me, just an observation, and in no way am I defending Mears, he had to go.
Burnley made changes and took the game to Swansea. Pushing men forward we always were offering them the chance to catch us on the break. A couple of times they did get through, but we defended the situations well.
Steven Thompson, one of our three subs, got a header on target but straight at goalkeeper Dorus de Vries, who was another to find himself in the referee's notebook for handling outside the box as he was put under pressure.
Thommo put a shot wide, Cork, another sub, tried a couple of speculative efforts, and we got some good balls into the box, particularly from Elliott who was by now nominally the right back but was getting forward all the time.
We didn't create too much in terms of clear cut chances but we had enough opportunities and Swansea must have been worried as Tanner added on another five minutes, but this wasn't Ipswich and this time we couldn't get that equaliser and so fell to defeat.
I think, given the first twenty minutes, you have to say Swansea just about deserved it. However, beyond that poor start we were without doubt the better team.
Wade was my man of the match, just ahead of the Beast. He played well in his central role and always looked the most likely source if we were going to get back into it during that last half hour.
A decent result here would have meant an excellent August. As it is, seven points from four games is a decent start and we need to be ready now for the local derby against Preston in two weeks.
The teams were;
Swansea: Dorus de Vries, Alan Tate, Ashley Williams, Garry Monk, Neil Taylor, Nathan Dyer (Andrea Orlandi 69), Mark Gower, Darren Pratley, Scott Sinclair, David Cotterill (Joe Allen 62), Stephen Dobbie (Shefki Kuqi 78). Subs not used: David Cornell, Jordi Lopez, Albert Serran, Jazz Richards.
Yellow Cards: Darren Pratley, Dorus de Vries, Neil Taylor.
Red Card: Darren Pratley.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander (Jack Cork 63), Wade Elliott, Dean Marney (Chris Eagles 72), Martin Paterson (Steven Thompson 68), Chris Iwelumo, Ross Wallace. Subs not used: Lee Grant, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Jay Rodriguez.
Yellow Cards: Tyrone Mears, Steven Thompson, Jack Cork.
Red Card: Tyrone Mears.
Referee: Steve Tanner (Somerset).
Attendance: 15,135.
Footnote
This was Burnley's first defeat at Swansea since 1993, when were beaten 3-1 at the Vetch Field. It was our first defeat at the Liberty Stadium.
Clarke Carlisle, who made his league debut for Burnley in August 2007 at Scunthorpe, recorded his 100th league appearance for Burnley in this game.