FA Cup: Stevenage 0-2 Swansea City - Wayne Routledge and Viktor Gyokeres send Swans through
- Published
FA Cup: Stevenage 0-2 Swansea City highlights
Steve Cooper claimed the first FA Cup victory of his managerial career as Swansea City won 2-0 at Stevenage.
Veteran forward Wayne Routledge headed home Yan Dhanda's precise cross to give Swansea a seventh-minute lead.
On-loan Brighton striker Viktor Gyokeres then headed in his first goal for the Championship side after fine work from Jordon Garrick.
League Two Stevenage threatened to respond, with Freddie Woodman saving new signing Luke Norris' late penalty.
But it is Swansea who progress to the fourth round after seeing off opponents 68 places below them in the English Football League ladder.
Routledge, who turned 36 earlier this week, has not featured often this season, but his first goal of 2020-21 means he has scored in 10 successive Swansea campaigns.
A much-changed Swans side had further chances, with Gyokeres, Dhanda and George Byers seeing efforts saved, while Danny Newton fired over for Stevenage and Charlie Carter's header was deflected wide.
Wayne Routledge celebrated his goal by holding up a shirt paying tribute to former Swansea employee Nick Eames - father of their kitman Mike - who died this week
Gyokeres' handball gave substitute Norris the chance to set up a tense finish, but Woodman guessed right to push away the Stevenage debutant's 82nd-minute spot-kick.
The save ensured this was a much more enjoyable experience for Cooper than his only previous FA Cup game, a 5-1 mauling at Queens Park Rangers 12 months ago.
Stevenage manager Alex Revell:
"I felt we didn't deserve to lose the game 2-0. We have conceded two really poor goals. Against a team who like to play through you, we have conceded two goals from crosses.
"That's disappointing, but I felt some of the football we played at times was excellent. We just couldn't quite get the ball in the net.
"All in all it's a positive in terms of some of the performances but obviously we would have liked to have won the game and been in the next round."
Swansea head coach Steve Cooper:
"The objective was to win the game. I said that in the lead-up and our preparation was as normal.
"Yeah we changed the team and with that we appreciated it might not be a free-flowing performance, with players making their debuts, players who have not played for a while, been out for a while or are slightly out of position, so to win 2-0 away from home - there were lots of positives.
"Was it as free-flowing as we'd like? No, but we did think the game might go a little bit like that at times.
"But we saw a good attitude from the boys, scored two goals, got a clean sheet and we're in the next round, which is exciting."
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