Swansea City beat Everton. Finally it happened and to be honest it could not have been an easier night at the Liberty as a strong Swans side just coasted past Roberto Martinez side to progress into the last 16 of the Capital One Cup.
Dreams of Wembley are getting stronger again after goals from Nathan Dyer, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Marvin Emnes were enough to see off the Toffees and in truth it could have been more as the game was far easier than we probably could have ever dreamt that it could be.
For the first fifteen minutes of the game it was probably Everton who were slightly the better side but they never really tested Gerhard Tremmel in the Swans goal. Looking at it the opposite way, Everton had already been tested several times by the pace of Jefferson Montero before he set up Dyer for the first and that was the exact moment that the game was won as Everton were never really in the game from that point forward.
Garry Monk's tactic of playing a pretty strong side in the game was paying dividends and there were excellent performances from the likes of Montero - a clear man of the match for me - together with Shelvey and Carroll who were controlling the midfield and getting hold of the ball quickly on the rare occasions when we gave it away.
However for me it was the joy of watching Montero that was the high point of the game and almost every time he got the ball you could sense the anticipation around the Liberty as to what he was going to do next. To see a wide man with pace taking on the defender is a joy to watch and it is surely only a matter of time before he starts to do that on a regular basis in the Premier League.
We had some fortune along the way - the defenders header just about bouncing into Gylfi as it came back off the bar for the second goal but Emnes finish at the end was pure class especially to beat a keeper of the quality of Tim Howard at the near post. It was though the least e deserved and the 3-0 scoreline for me was a fair reflection of the game that we watched.
Over 20,000 were in the Liberty which backed the excellent pricing policy of the club for this particular game and to be fair to Everton their support was large in numbers although the mass exodus after the third goal would have seen many of them back on the M4 before the final whistle blew as they contemplated a long drive back to Merseyside with any hopes of a Capital One Cup triumph behind them.
So two years ago we started with a win over a team from South Yorkshire as we did this time around. Then we won a game against a team for the first side (Crawley) as we did this time around. 4th Round last time was the holders away from home - Man City away next anybody???
Onwards