Shefki Kuqi scored the only goal of the game as the Swans strengthened their grip on their play off position

Report: bbc.co.uk

Shefki Kuqi's second-half header saw Swansea stay on course for the play-offs in a fiery clash that saw both sides reduced to 10 men at the end.

James McEveley was lucky to escape red after a tackle on Joe Allen, but he was soon off after fouling Nathan Dyer.

David Cotterill's superb resultant free kick found the head of Swansea's new Finnish striker Kuqi who powered home.

Substitute Gorka Pintado saw red for a two-footed tackle on Robbie Savage, then Derby's Michael Tonge hit the bar.

That was the Rams' last chance against a mean Swansea defence, who have kept 18 clean sheets this season and have now gone 11 games without defeat.

Paulo Sousa's fourth-placed side are the only side in the Championship yet to taste defeat in 2010.

Swansea's star midfielder Ferrie Bodde was back after five months out with a knee injury, although the Dutchman was kept on the bench.

A tired-looking Derby side suffered a further setback as the impressive Kris Commons departed after 25 minutes with a suspected hamstring injury.

REPORT - Sheffieldjack

A great away win for the flying Swans, passionately backed by about 1,474 Jacks. The game was played on a terrible pitch which did not suit our passing style of play and overseen by a totally inept referee.

The first half was scrappy but the referee allowed Derby to get away with far too much. There was a dangerous tackle on Orlandi after about ten minutes which the ref totally ignored and which resulted in Orlandi having to be substituted a few minutes later. Time after time the Derby centrebacks were climbing all over Kuqi but nothing was given.

But the ref seemed intent on gifting Deerby a goal and kept giving freekicks a few yards outside the penatly area against Swansea players when the ball was whacked against them from about three yards. Ridiculous! Fortunately their freekicks either hit our wall or sailed high and wide. Savage got a fair bit of stick, but played the part of the pantomine villain as usual.

The ref compounded his inept performance early in the second half when he only gave a yellow card to the Derby player who tried to break Joe Allen's leg with an even worse tackle than the Orlandi one in the first half. 

Thne there were four defining moments. The first was the sending off of the Derby fullback marking Dyer. He had struggled with Dyer's pace in the first half and been booked for a foul. Midway through the second half he took Dyer out when Dyer had skinned him and the ref had no option but to send him off.

The second was a well taken goal by Kuqi who flicked on a header from a free kick which went in off the inside of the post in front of the jubilant away support.

The third was the sending off of Pintado for a strong tackle on Savage - but the injustice was that earier two far worse tackles had not resulted in red cards and in the ruck that followed Pintado's tackle the Derby goalie violently retaliated and should clealrly have been sent off too. What did the ref do? Nothing!

The fourth was the dreaded 87th minute jinx! This time things went our way when a Derby freekick hit the underside on the crossbar but bounced back into play and was cleared to safety. After that we held on comfortably and earned a well-deserved three points!

Believe! The Jacks are going up!

Photo: Action Images

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