Saturday 17th September 2022
Swansea.com Stadium
12:30

SWA Swansea

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HUL Hull

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17th September
Ryan Manning Hull cele

Second-half goals from Ryan Manning, Luke Cundle and Joel Piroe gave Swansea City a deserved victory over Hull City at the Swansea.com Stadium.

The Swans were completely dominant, and had struck the woodwork on a trio of occasions before Manning opened the scoring on the hour mark.

Cundle then took advantage of a defensive mix up to score the first senior goal of his career, before Piroe picked off a loose pass and advanced to fire home his fourth goal of the season and make the points safe.

The performance and result send Swansea into the international break in better spirits following the frustration of the midweek defeat to Sheffield United.

Head coach Russell Martin had challenged his players to feed those feelings into their display here, and there was no questioning the purpose in their play from the off and the winning margin could easily have been far more convincing.

With the hosts fielding an unchanged starting line-up, Steven Benda made the first save of the contest, tipping over Jean Michel Seri’s long-range drive.

But the Swans should have led just before the four-minute mark after a lovely move.

Patient build-up created room for Ben Cabango’s pass to break the lines and the ball was swept left to Manning.

His astute pull-back found Piroe’s late run, but his placed shot was deflected against the bar.

Piroe then steered wide from a superb Kyle Naughton pass and the Swans knew they could, and should, have been 2-0 up with less than seven minutes on the clock.

Kyle Naughton makes a challenge v Hull City

Swansea were all over the Tigers, and skipper Matt Grimes’ lovely reverse ball so nearly found its way to Piroe as the home side pressed again.

There was a real zip to Swansea’s play with the ball, and another big chance came and went when Ollie Cooper arrived onto Jay Fulton’s pass only to see Nathan Baxter save his initial effort and his follow-up be diverted behind for a corner.

It took Hull 21 minutes to offer any genuine sign of a threat, skipper Lewis Coyle driving forward to send a low effort just wide of Benda’s left-hand upright.

The Swans then suffered a blow as Joe Allen had to limp off after appearing to hurt his knee, with Cundle coming on in his place.

A couple of further periods of treatment for players on either side rather sapped the life out of the game, but the Swans regathered some momentum to finish the half strongly.

Matty Sorinola fired just over before the woodwork again denied Piroe and his ferocious drive was just about tipped onto the bar by Baxter to ensure the game remained goalless at the break.

Hull came close to sending Ozan Tufan in on goal shortly after the restart, but Nathan Wood covered back superbly to get ahead of the Turk and clear.

The Swans were proving to be utterly luckless as they then went up the other end and struck the bar again.

Cundle was the man denied this time, after excellent pressing work by Piroe and Cooper.

Ryan Manning Hull goal

Cooper then found Sorinola, who had his effort from the edge of the box blocked before Cabango missed his kick after a clever corner routine saw Piroe scuff a shot into a crowd of bodies.

But the breakthrough finally came on the hour.

Sorinola worked space for a cross and hung the ball up to the back post where Manning showed great desire to get ahead of his man and steer a volley into the far corner of the net.

And the lead was doubled just four minutes later in unlikely fashion.

Swansea had built well and Cooper went surging into the area where he stumbled and the ball trickled away to Hull defender Tobias Figueiredo.

Keeper Baxter emerged to retrieve the ball, but the centre-half was unaware of his keeper’s position and ended up actually blocking his colleague from retrieving possession and Cundle swooped to nip in and slot into the unguarded net.

Luke Cundle Hull

A third nearly followed, Cundle showing great awareness and sure touch to send Piroe scurrying towards goal, only for a great block to send the Dutchman’s effort away for a corner.

But Swansea’s top scorer from last term was not to be denied his goal, and he showed great alertness to spot and pick off a slack pass in the Tigers’ defence, and then beat the cover to fire high into the net.

Swansea City: Steven Benda; Nathan Wood, Kyle Naughton, Ben Cabango; Matty Sorinola (Fin Stevens 90), Joe Allen (Luke Cundle 31), Matt Grimes (captain), Ryan Manning; Jay Fulton, Ollie Cooper (Armstrong Oko-Flex 90), Joel Piroe (Michael Obafemi 88).

Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Harry Darling, Olivier Ntcham.

Hull City: Nathan Baxter, Lewis Coyle (captain), Callum Elder, Jacob Greaves, Tobias Figueiredo, Ozan Tufan, Oscar Estupinan (Cyrus Christie 82), Dimitrios Pelkas (Greg Docherty 75), Jean Michel Seri (Ryan Woods 75), Regan Slater, Harvey Vale (Ryan Longman 67).

Unused Substitutes: Matt Ingram, Tyler Smith, Sean McLoughlin.

Referee: Keith Stroud

Attendance: 15,207

The sixth version of the new, updated publication includes an in-depth interview with Ollie Cooper as the young midfielder reflects on his bright start to the new campaign, the benefits of his loan spell at Newport, and his burgeoning understanding with Joel Piroe.

We also get the latest from our academy and Ladies sides, including a feature with Emma Beynon where she talks through her experience of playing in the Champions League just 103 days after giving birth to son Theo.

If you want to look into our opponents then check out the info on Hull City’s key men, and their boss Shota Arveladze.