Toshack: We played like a Swansea City side

Cameron Toshack praised his under-23s' side for showing the best qualities of a Swansea City side in their Premier League Cup win over Aston Villa in Landore.

The development side booked their place in the quarter-finals - and gained a modicum of revenge for their final defeat at the hands of the same opponents last season - as first-half goals from Ben Cabango and Jordon Garrick sealed an impressive 2-0 win.

It has been a challenging season for the under-23s, and they face an uphill battle for survival in Premier League 2 following defeat to West Ham on Monday, but they responded with a fine performance full of character and a swagger in possession.

And Toshack revealed he and Gary Richards had encouraged their side to go out and show exactly what they can do.

"The first thing we asked the boys to do tonight was to go out and enjoy themselves and play like a Swansea City team," said coach Toshack.

"They have not got their rewards at times this season, we spoke about it in the week and we wanted them to go out on the field and take responsibility and play like a Swansea City team.

"They did exactly that, as everyone who came to the game would have seen, and we are very proud of them for doing that.

"I thought in the first half we could easily have gone in a couple of goals better off, but it was an excellent performance and we played really well to a man."

The Swans are now in the quarter-finals for the third season in a row, and they were boosted by the returns of Garrick and Marco Dulca from injury after two and six months on the sidelines respectively.

Garrick was withdrawn just past the half-hour mark, shortly after doubling Swansea's lead with a superb solo goal.

But Toshack explained there is no cause for alarm, and that the plan had always been for the forward to play 30 minutes.

"The plan was to give him a short run, with the problems he has had with injuries we want to make sure we get him back to full fitness so the plan was to give him half-hour either at the end or the start," he said.

"Jordon said he would prefer to play from the start and we are really pleased he is back, he is a dynamic player but his work-rate without the ball is excellent too and that made it tough for Villa to play out.

"But the whole group deserve credit. They threw everything at us second half and the defensive unit can take pride in the clean sheet."