Report | Swansea City U18s 5 Exeter City U18s 1

2nd August
Iwan Morgan Under-18s

A first-half hat-trick for Iwan Morgan helped a dominant Swansea City Under-18s side to a comfortable victory over Exeter City in their final home pre-season friendly.

Geoff Bony and Cameron Llewellyn were also on the scoresheet for the hosts, who had surged into a 4-0 lead by the interval.

After a slow start, Swans began to control the game from around the 10th minute and Bony gave Darren Davies' side the lead in the 12th minute when he fired across the onrushing keeper to finish off a very nice passing move.

After the opener, the Swans dominated and Morgan got his first in the 22nd minute when he was given time and space in the box and took the opportunity to slot beyond the visiting shot-stopper.

The two sides swapped off-target shots from distance, before the Swans high-pressing game paid off to give them a third.

Kyrell Wilson intercepted the ball and found Bony to put him and Morgan two on one. Bony slid in his strike partner who finished into the empty net.

Exeter’s best chance of the first half came three minutes later when a snapshot from the edge of the box cannoned off the crossbar, but they found themselves even further behind before half-time.

Once again, Swansea’s pressing bore fruit. This time it was Bony who won the ball. He once again picked out Morgan who still had a lot to do, but stroked the ball home beautifully as it nestled just inside the far post.

Coach Davies opted for wholesale changes at the break removing both goal scorers as well as the influential Josh Carey – who was a key figure in the middle of the park – and several defenders.

Swansea took a few minutes to get to grips with the new personnel, particularly in defence, and they came under early pressure. They were forced to scramble the ball off the line within seconds of the restart and quickly conceded a corner. The ball was whipped in left-footed and was headed in at the near post by the visitors.

The home side quickly recovered from the early setback and Sam Parker forced two excellent saves from the keeper after arriving late to a cut-back ball, before a well-worked corner-kick eventually fell to substitute Aimar Govea who fired against the upright.

The home side showed tenacity to win possession back quickly, and the ball was moved well reaching Llewellyn, who was unmarked at the back post and slotted home to restore the Swans' four-goal lead.

It could have been more for the home side: Parker sliced a difficult chance wide after being picked out at the back post and the visiting keeper made a superb double save after the Swans’ quick passing sliced through the Exeter defence.

The final 15 minutes became a bit scrappy with niggly fouls conceded by both teams and plenty of substitutions, but the Swans were able to see out the match to make for a fine ending to their home pre-season schedule.