Classy Swansea City dump Cobblers out of the Carabao Cup

Cobblers were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the first attempt on Tuesday evening when soundly beaten 3-0 by Championship side Swansea City.

The hosts started like a train and Town fans would have been fearing the worst when Joel Piroe tapped in after only 10 minutes, but their side grew into the contest and kept the deficit to one goal at half-time.

Swansea had picked a strong team though and they eased to victory in the second half with Piroe adding his second soon after the restart before Josh Ginnelly provided some late gloss with a stunning third goal in stoppage-time.

Max Thompson was handed his Cobblers debut in goal as Jon Brady made seven changes from the weekend, with Aaron McGowan, Max Dyche, Ali Koiki, Will Hondermarck, Kieron Bowie and Louis Appéré all coming in.

Ex-Town midfielder Matt Grimes captained Swansea as home boss Michael Duff went with a strong side, and the hosts were on top almost straight from kick-off with Ollie Cooper, Kyle Naughton and Nathan Wood all missing the target from long-range.

It didn’t take Swansea long to convert their pressure into an early lead as Town were carved open on their right side after 10 minutes and Cooper put it on a plate for Piroe to tap in at the back stick.

Cobblers had barely been given a kick up until that point but they responded with a good spell of their own and were close to levelling when Bowie dragged wide of the far post after a poor error by goalkeeper Carl Rushworth.

Bowie drilled another shot wide midway through the half, but Swansea were back in the ascendency soon after with Thompson down quickly to save from both Grimes and Joe Allen before Liam Cullen grazed the side-netting.

It was all Swansea at the start of the second half and after McGowan cleared off the line from Cooper, they doubled their lead through Piroe’s second after the ball rebounded off him and looped into the net.

Both sides made four substitutions on the hour-mark and that somewhat took the sting out of the game, which suited Cobblers who proceeded to go close when Rushworth smothered from Hoskins after great work by Appéré.

That chance came with more than 20 minutes left to play but little else happened until the fourth minute of stoppage-time when Ginnelly picked out the top corner with a superb strike from 30 yards, putting the gloss on a comfortable victory for the home side.

Swansea: Rushworth, Darling, O Cooper, Ashby (Key 61), Naughton (Kuharevich 81), Abdulai, Wood, Cullen, Allen (Fulton 61), Grimes © (Patersen 61), Piroe (Ginnelly 61)

Subs not used: Fisher, Yates, B Cooper, Lissah

Cobblers: Thompson, Sherring (Odimayo 62), Monthé, Dyche, McGowan ©, Koiki (Brough 62), Leonard (Abimbola 71), Hondermarck, Pinnock (Sowerby 62), Bowie (Hoskins 62), Appéré

Subs not used: Dadge, Scott

Referee: Peter Wright

Attendance: 6,923

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