Swansea City brushed aside a poor Cardiff City team this afternoon as they eased to a comfortable 3-0 victory at the Swansea dot com stadium.
Apart from the opening 20 or so minutes, when Cardiff looked the more likely to score, the home side dominated proceedings and never looked back after Jamie Paterson’s classy 29th minute strike.
Almost as classy as the former Bristol City man’s goal, was his celebration, as he ran behind the goal to celebrate whilst doing the ‘swim away’ to the travelling support, a la Darren Pratley in 2008.
Truth be told, the Swans were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty after less than 5 minutes, when Curtis Nelson clearly fouled Ethan Laird, but referee James Linington merely awarded the Swans a corner.
Video replays later appeared to show that Linington had his view blocked and was too far away from play to make a judgement in the Swans favour.
Although the Swans had almost 76% in the first half, they had only managed 3 shots as opposed to Cardiff’s 5, but most importantly, they held the advantage at half-time.
The Swans took complete control in the second half and added a second goal on the hour with some good team play, as that man Paterson set up Joel Piroe for his 7th goal of the season. The Dutchman showing great skill, using his chest to control the ball, before dinking it over Smithies in the Bluebirds goal.
It came as no surprise when the Swans added a third on 74 minutes, as Man of the Match Paterson, calmly crossed for Jake Bidwell to head the ball firmly into the back of the net and once again, cause pandemonium in the home end, as the Jack Army celebrated wildly.
By the time the referee had blown the full time whistle, the only shock was that the Swansea hadn’t added to their 3 goal tally, having mustered 9 shots in the second half, whilst once against having over 70% possession.
Russell Martin will no doubt have enjoyed his very first south Wales derby, and perhaps more importantly, the valuable 3 points that see his side move up to 17th in the table with 14 points after 12 games.
It is the sort of result that could help the Swans kick-on, although they are sure to face a much sterner test on Wednesday night, when second placed West Brom are the visitors.