Swans boss praises attitude after thumping win

CARLOS Carvalhal saluted his Swansea players after their record 8-1 FA Cup demolition of Notts County for treating the minnows as if they were playing Arsenal or Liverpool.

Swansea strolled to their best-ever FA Cup victory with Tammy Abraham and Nathan Dyer both scoring twice before Kyle Naughton, Wayne Routledge, Tom Carroll and Daniel James added second-half goals.

The huge win came on the back of Swansea’s Premier League revival under Carvalhal, which has seen them escape the bottom three after high-profile wins over Liverpool and Arsenal. “I’m very happy and very proud of my players,” Carvalhal said after beating the League Two side.

“I talked to them before the game and said play with a high motivation as we did against Arsenal and Liverpool.

“Our challenge is to motivate the players when we play teams below us, because surprises appear when you are not completely focused and teams from another division take the game very serious.

“They are not a weak team, they are doing very well in their league, and put Brentford out of the cup away and played a difficult first game against us.

“But we played like we did against Liverpool and Arsenal and this makes all the difference.”

Swansea will now play Sheffield Wednesday in the fifth round on February 17.

It means a quick Hillsborough return for Carvalhal, who left the Championship club on Christmas Eve after spending two-and-a-half years at Wednesday.

“I feel that I will be back home,” Carvalhal said.