A Christmas cracker of a first-half performance set Swansea City on the way to a dominant Boxing Day victory over Queens Park Rangers at the Swansea.com Stadium.
The Swans found themselves 3-0 up inside 33 minutes, Liam Cullen's brace taking his tally to nine goals for the season before Gonçalo Franco’s first goal for the club as they ruthlessly took the game to their opponents with and without the ball.
That half-time lead could easily have been greater such was Swansea’s grip on the game, but they were still able to ease to victory and return to winning ways.
Head coach Luke Williams had spoken of the need to entertain supporters at a special time in the football calendar, and his side delivered that in spades, showing fluidity and aggression with the ball, and pressing relentlessly.
There was also the welcome sight of a senior debut for midfielder Ben Lloyd, as he became the latest academy product to make the step up to first-team level.
Florian Bianchini, Ronald and Franco had all been recalled to the Swans team following the weekend defeat at Hull, with Žan Vipotnik, Myles Peart-Harris and Jay Fulton dropping to the bench.
Luke Williams had talked about the need to entertain over the festive fixtures, and his side made a bright enough start as Franco nipped in ahead of keeper Paul Nardi to reach a long pass, but the Swans could not make more of the early pressure.
Ronald then just failed to reach Liam Cullen’s cross at the far post after good work by Jisung Eom.
But they took a deserved lead in the 12th minute, Ronald was sent careering into space down the right and his low cross was perfect for Cullen as he ran on to the ball without breaking stride and steered the ball into the net to continue his rich vein of form.
Swansea continued to threaten, and a lovely, slick move ended with Eom sending a low strike into the arms of the keeper, before Bianchini could not take in a Matt Grimes pass after the hosts had forced a loose clearance from the R’s.
The Swans were making all the running, and Ronald was denied by Nardi after rolling his marker from a Bianchini pass, while Cullen could not finish from an acute angle a few moments later.
But the Wales international did not have to wait long to double his and Swansea’s tally. A lovely ball found Josh Key in the area, and the full-back’s low cross was turned in by Cullen.
Swansea were in total control, and they extended their lead further when Franco got his name on the scoresheet, volleying home on the rebound after Eom and Cullen had combined, with Nardi only able to parry the latter’s fierce cross.
Nardi hauled in a Ben Cabango header as Swansea threatened to add another before the interval, with Key’s low shot also being denied by the keeper.
When the whistle went for half-time the home side’s dominance had been such that they’d enjoyed 83 per cent of possession and been on target with seven of their eight attempts on goal. QPR, by contrast, had not registered a single shot on goal.
Rangers made a treble change at the break as Harrison Ashby, Ilias Chair and Nicolas Madsen were summoned from the bench, but the first chance of the new half fell to the Swans as Key tricked his way past a defender into the box and forced Nardi into yet another save.
Lawrence Vigouroux had been a bystander for much of the afternoon, but he was forced into a save when Paul Smyth’s low cross deflected and needed to be turned around the post.
Bianchini just failed to reach a Ronald pass as the hour-mark arrived, and the Frenchman then missed a golden opportunity to send substitute Myles Peart-Harris into acres of space as he failed to spot the winger’s lung-busting run to his left.
Vipotnik fired into the side-netting in the closing stages as the Swans eased to the three points.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon; Matt Grimes (captain), Gonçalo Franco (Jay Fulton 86), Liam Cullen (Ben Lloyd 86); Ronald (Azeem Abdulai 86), Jisung Eom (Myles Peart-Harris 61); Florian Bianchini (Žan Vipotnik 77)
Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton.
Queens Park Rangers: Paul Nardi, Jimmy Dunne, Morgan Fox, Jake Clarke-Salter, Kenneth Paal (Harrison Ashby 46), Jonathan Varane, Sam Field (captain), Kieran Morgan (Nicolas Madsen 46), Koki Saito (Ilias Chair 46), Rayan Kolli (Michael Frey 67), Paul Smyth (Lucas Andersen 84).
Unused Substitutes: Joe Walsh, Elijah Dixon-Bonner, Danniel Bennie, Alfie Lloyd.
Referee: Ben Toner
Attendance: 15,843
