Jon Grey | An outstanding performance by all

Swansea City Under-23s coach Jon Grey heaped praise on the attacking quality demonstrated by the development side after they recorded their biggest league win on home soil in nearly four years with victory over Middlesbrough.

The young Swans were commanding 5-1 winners at Landore as Liam Cullen scored his first hat-trick for the under-23s – taking his goal tally for the season to 11 in all competitions.

Kristoffer Peterson also bagged a brace on an afternoon where the development side recorded their biggest league win on home turf since a 5-0 rout of Blackburn Rovers in March 2016.

The under-23s produced a terrific display of attacking football as they moved to within a point of their Premier League 2 Division Two play-off places.

They also extended their unbeaten run in the second tier of development football to five matches, and could have stretched their winning margin even further but for good saves by Middlesbrough goalkeeper Sol Brynn.

And Grey was thrilled to see his side demonstrate a greater clinical edge in the final third.

“I’m delighted with the way everyone applied themselves again. It was an outstanding performance by all involved,” the under-23s coach said.

“For their performance and the way they attacked today, they deserved the five goals that they scored and deserved to win the game in the manner that they did.

“After last week, we wanted to work on taking a bit of extra care in the final third and punishing teams when we got opportunities.

“We scored five goals today, so I can’t really complain about that.

“Every game we go into, we want to make sure that fine detail in the final third is in place. That’s the hardest area of the pitch – both attacking and defensively. If we can get that right and take today’s performance into our next game then that would be brilliant.”

The under-23s coach also highlighted the performance of Barrie McKay at Landore.

One of three first-team players gaining valuable game time with the development side along with Peterson and Declan John, the Scotsman produced a highly influential display in the middle of the park – playing a part in all five goals.

“Barrie deserves a special mention. I thought he was excellent.

“He was involved in all of the goals and he looked a threat every time he went forward.

“It was a good opportunity for our lads to play with a few first-team players and to be fair to them, I thought they worked their socks off to help the boys out.

“You can see why they’re first-team players; there was a lot of quality on show today.”