Cooper proud as classy Jamal Lowe ends tough week with brace

Steve Cooper was delighted to see “classy” Jamal Lowe round off a difficult week by getting back among the goals for Swansea City at Millwall.

Swans forward Lowe had received disgusting racial abuse via social media in the wake of the Good Friday defeat at Birmingham, becoming the third player in Cooper’s squad to be the victim of such cowardly behaviour in just seven weeks.

The instances involving Lowe, Ben Cabango and Yan Dhanda led Swansea City to take a club-wide stance against all forms of discrimination.

From 5pm on Thursday, April 8, the club commenced a week-long boycott of social media, and re-iterated calls for the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to introduce greater oversight and punishments.

In the first game since the Swans took that stance, Lowe netted a brace in the 3-0 win at Millwall, putting the seal on a fine Swans’ win.

And Cooper was pleased to see the 26-year-old take his tally for the season to 11 after a challenging week.

“I am pleased for Jamal in a week where he has shown a lot of class and the sort of guy he is,” said Cooper.

“We were a real attacking threat. Wayne Routledge was excellent, Andre (Ayew) scored at a great time and was a nuisance to the Millwall defenders.

“But they were excellent goals for Jamal. He was in a good position in the first half and did not score, but he has not let it affect him and he has scored two.

“People ask a lot about goals but he does not let it affect him, and that’s the sign of a good character and a good player.

“He did not need to score two goals today to make the discrimination he has received any easier to take, and he did not need to score two goals today for us to know what a good person he is.

“He is a great team-mate, he has two kids and I know he is a brilliant dad.

“But the fact he did score two goals at the end of a difficult week makes us all really proud of Jamal, proud of all the boys who have been on the end of abuse, and proud of the stance the club has made this week.”