Kamaldeen Sulemana ended his 37-goal run and Tyler Dibling scored twice as Southampton registered their first win under manager Ivan Juric by beating Swansea 3-0 in the FA Cup third round.
Suleman, the record player at the club, who cost 22 million pounds two years ago from the French club Rennes, scored for the first time since May 2023. Mary’s from the bottom of the Premier League.
Teenager Dibling benefited from an assist from Suleman to give Saints their second lead before adding another in the second period to finish off the mid-table opponents in the Sky Bet Championship.
The comfortable victory for the 1976 FA Cup winners, who are 10 points adrift of top flight safety, was only their fourth in 25 games this term and ended an 11-game winless streak that stretched back to November 2.
Southampton will host Championship promotion hopefuls Burnley in the fourth round early next month.
Head coach Juric has overseen three straight league defeats since replacing the sacked Russell Martin just before Christmas following last weekend’s 5-0 defeat at home to Brentford.
The Croatian kept faith with nine of the starting 11 embarrassed by the Bees, while Swansea boss Liam Williams started second keeper Jon McLaughlin and left nine-goal top scorer Liam Cullen on the bench as part of his back four.
changes.
Ghana international Sulemana and wing-back Kyle Walker-Peters each threatened twice in the opening stages before the hosts took the lead in the 20th minute.
After Lesley Ugochukwu headed Aaron Ramsdale through on goal, Swans keeper McLaughlin was left stranded trying to retrieve the loose ball, allowing Sulemana to calmly find an unguarded goal from the edge of the 18-yard box.
territory.
Swansea, who started the new year with a 4-0 defeat along the south coast at Saints’ bitter rivals Portsmouth, enjoyed a period of possession before falling further behind 10 minutes before half-time.
Sulemana was the creator on this occasion, exchanging passes with Ugochukwu on the left before delivering a low cross for Dibling to tap home from inside his six-yard box.
The visitors offered nothing of note from an attacking perspective in a relatively one-sided opening period and relied on McLaughlin to keep out Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ header from a Ryan Manning corner early in the second.
While Southampton remained in control, the home fans were eager for a third goal to snuff out any possibility of extra-time and, potentially, penalties.
The 18-year-old Dibling duly executed 25 minutes from time, blazing into the bottom left corner after Kyle Naughton failed to clear Manning’s low cross from the left.
Swansea almost pulled off a consolation eight minutes from time when substitute Joe Allen hit the inside left post after Will Smallbone mis-controlled a pass from the Ramsdale keeper.
But Southampton, who almost added a fourth through substitute Adam Armstrong, were rarely tempted as they cruised through before resuming their relegation battle at Manchester United on Thursday.
What’s coming up?
