Swans Ease Past Newport

Swansea City progress through to the second round of the FA Cup after beating Newport in the all-Welsh derby today at Spytty Park.

We got off to the perfect start as Lee Trundle put us in front with just 7 minutes on the clock. He beat the offside trap and with space and time to spare he slotted the ball in past Ovendale in the Newport goal.

Kenny Jackett opted for a centre midfield partnership of MacDonald and Tate in the absence of Pratley and Tudur-Jones while O'Leary had to be content with a place on the bench.

Amankwaah came in to fill Alan Tate's right back role while Austin replaced the injured Tommy Williams.

On the half hour mark, Swansea doubled their lead as defender Izzy Iriekpen headed the ball in.

The match started to get dirty however as the fourth official was struck badly by a coin from the home crowd which required him to visit the hospital after bursting a blood vessel.

This was after Newport manager Peter Beadle was sent to the stands after arguing over a free-kick which led to Leon Britton scoring our third goal of the game.

The pint-sized winger doesn't score many with his head but today he did as Trundle crossed the ball in from just outside the area, Britton was then given enough time and space to head the ball in to the top corner.

Newport came out for the second half a much better side and they looked to make their way back into the game.

On a number of occasions, County should have scored but Gueret made a few decent saves to keep the score at 3-0.

They did score a consollation however Hillier scored 3 minutes after the break after taking advantage of poor defending from the Swans.

As a cross came in towards the far post, Dennis Lawrence stood still, leaving 2 Newport County players unmarked as Hillier scored.

Hopefully we weren't heading for a closer game than it should've been as last Friday we nearly looked like throwing away a 3-goal lead as Bournemouth closed the game to 3-2.

Newport were creating far more chances in the second half but they couldn't finish them off as they lacked that extra quality up front. Alsop looked past it and that idiot Craig Hughes was never in the game to start with. All his big talk prior to kick off came to nothing as he didn't manage to score against the club he hates.

Newport County: Ovendale, Hillier, Cochlin, Brough, Brewer (Evans 84), Davies, Bowen, Collier (Garner 55), O'Sullivan (Green 65), Alsop, Hughes.
Subs Not Used: Giles, Edwards.

Booked: Davies, Alsop, Hughes.

Goals: Hillier 48.

Swansea: Gueret, Amankwaah, Tate, Lawrence, Austin, Iriekpen, Britton (O'Leary 88), MacDonald, Robinson, Fallon (Akinfenwa 83), Trundle (Butler 74).
Subs Not Used: Oakes, Jones.

Booked: Tate, Robinson.

Goals: Trundle 7, Iriekpen 31, Britton 45.

Att: 4,660

Ref: A Bates (Staffordshire).

"We've had an up and down start to the season,"

"I certainly wouldn't say we've turned any corners but we are gradually picking up.

"There is a fantastic team spirit in the group now. The difficult start to the season has probably gelled the players together." "We won the second half 1-0. That's what we asked from them. With a little bit more luck, we could have got another goal and that would have been a bit more testing for Swansea."

But the important bit is that you lost the whole game 3-1.

"I'm proud of every one of my players."

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