Hourihane dazzles in goal spree

STEVE COOPER hailed the influence of new signing Conor Hourihane after Swansea thrashed Nottingham Forest to reach the fifth round.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who joined Swansea from Aston Villa on Wednesday on loan until the end of the season, had only a couple of training sessions with his new team-mates before starting yesterday.

But he made an instant impact as the Championship high-fliers scored more than two in a game for the first time this season.

‘I thought he was excellent, he’s been so impressive since he walked through the door,’ Swansea manager Cooper said.

‘You can see he’s a real focused, professional individual who is not only going to bring what he possesses, but he also wants to buy into what we’re trying to do. That’s always the best way to be.

‘His composure and quality on the ball was how we wanted it and why we wanted to bring him here. If that’s the start of things to come then happy days.’

Swansea, second in the Championship, have built their success this season on a watertight defence but they hit top gear at the other end with Matt Grimes and Liam Cullen each scoring twice. Their young midfielder Oli Cooper added a fifth six minutes from time with his first senior goal.

“It’s a fantastic scoreline, through to the next round – that was the main objective – players making their debut, young players scoring and loads and loads of pluses,” Steve Cooper said. ‘Culls [Cullen] deserved that. I said to him not so long ago, we’ve just been waiting for those chances to drop to him because he will score.

‘We see him do it every day in training, he’s a really good finisher. Although his finishes weren’t easy, he made them look comfortable and that didn’t surprise us.’

Forest were outfought and outthought in a one-sided first half which saw Cullen and Grimes put Swansea in control.

Manager Chris Hughton’s halftime words provoked a strong response from the visitors and Anthony Knockaert halved the deficit after 56 minutes.

The Forest revival ended quickly, however, when the referee Kevin Friend awarded Swansea a penalty five minutes later, much to the fury of Hughton.

Ryan Manning fell just inside the area under a challenge from Joe Worrall, but Hughton felt the Swansea player had initiated the contact. He said: ‘We were having our best period of the game and had got back to 2-1, but then the ref makes a dreadful decision.’