Kamaldeen Sulemana ended a 37-game purpose drought and Tyler Dibling scored twice as Southampton registered a primary win underneath supervisor Ivan Juric by beating Swansea 3-0 within the FA Cup third spherical.
Membership-record signing Sulemana, who value a reported £22m from French membership Rennes two years in the past, discovered the web for the primary time since Could 2023 by lobbing the Premier League’s backside aspect forward at St Mary’s.
Teenager Dibling benefited from a Sulemana help to say Saints’ second earlier than including one other within the second interval to complete off opposition sitting mid-table within the Sky Guess Championship.
A snug victory for the 1976 FA Cup winners, who’re 10 factors adrift of security within the high flight, was solely a fourth in 25 outings this time period and ended an 11-match winless run stretching again to November 2.
Southampton will host Championship promotion hopefuls Burnley in spherical 4 early subsequent month.
Head coach Juric has overseen three successive league losses since changing the sacked Russell Martin simply earlier than Christmas following final weekend’s 5-0 hammering at residence to Brentford.
The Croatian stored religion with 9 of the beginning XI embarrassed by the Bees, whereas Swansea boss Liam Williams began second-choice goalkeeper Jon McLaughlin and dropped nine-goal high scorer Liam Cullen to the bench as a part of his 4
modifications.
Ghana worldwide Sulemana and wing-back Kyle Walker-Peters every threatened twice within the opening phases earlier than the hosts edged forward in route-one trend within the twentieth minute.
After Aaron Ramsdale’s goal-kick was flicked on by Lesley Ugochukwu, Swans ‘keeper McLaughlin was left stranded in his efforts to achieve the free ball, permitting Sulemana to calmly discover the unguarded purpose from the sting of the 18-yard
space.
Swansea, who started the brand new 12 months with a 4-0 thrashing alongside the south coast at Saints’ bitter rivals Portsmouth, loved a interval of possession earlier than falling additional behind 10 minutes shy of half-time.
Sulemana was the creator on this event, exchanging passes with Ugochukwu on the left earlier than delivering a low centre for Dibling to faucet residence from his contained in the six-yard field.
The guests provided nothing of observe from an attacking perspective in a comparatively one-sided opening interval and have been reliant on McLaughlin retaining out Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ header from a Ryan Manning nook early within the second.
Whereas Southampton remained in management, residence followers have been anticipating a 3rd purpose to snuff out any chance of being taken to extra-time and, doubtlessly, penalties.
The 18-year-old Dibling duly delivered 25 minutes from time, drilling into the underside left nook after Kyle Naughton did not clear Manning’s low cross from the left.
Swansea practically snatched a comfort eight minutes from time when substitute Joe Allen struck the within of the left put up after Will Smallbone miscontrolled a go from ‘keeper Ramsdale.
However Southampton, who nearly added a fourth via substitute Adam Armstrong, have been not often examined as they eased via forward of resuming their relegation battle at Manchester United on Thursday.
What the managers mentioned…
Southampton boss Ivan Juric: “I’m very happy, very satisfied, I think we did one good game.
“I noticed plenty of good issues, a couple of not so good however we’re very happy, joyful.
“I hope it’s a new beginning. It’s the FA Cup and now we want to prepare really well to play against Manchester United [in our next game] to be more competitive than we were in the last game [against Brentford].
“I feel we are able to do it.”
Swansea boss Luke Williams on the difference between the sides: “Premier League high quality up entrance most likely mixed with a goalkeeper that hasn’t performed for some time and two central defenders that have not performed for fairly some time.
“I really think we have a good goalkeeper, we have two really good players playing at centre-back but, without minutes recently and against that opposition, it was tough for them.
“The primary factor is we performed towards a superior crew and we weren’t capable of cope.
“Our biggest problem was we were so sloppy in our build-up. We gave the ball away so cheaply and we can’t afford to do that against a Premier League outfit.”
