Report | Yeovil Town 1 Swansea City 6

Jay Fulton scored a hat-trick as Swansea City made it three wins from three under Steve Cooper with this comfortable victory at National League Yeovil.

The visitors had surged into a two-goal lead inside 10 minutes as Bersant Celina finished a fine move before Fulton’s curling strike doubled the lead.

The Glovers pulled one back through Tom Bradbury’s header from a free-kick, but Fulton restored the Swans’ cushion as he diverted an attempted clearance into the net.

The Scottish midfielder then completed his treble in fine style as he smashed home Celina’s corner, before substitutes Barrie McKay and Courtney Baker-Richardson rounded off the scoring.

While Cooper, his staff and players will know there is much work still to be done before the new campaign kicks off against Hull on August 3 there were more encouraging signs, particularly in the incisive attacking play that really should have yielded more than the six goals scored on the night.

And a number of players further built up their fitness by getting an hour under their belts before a raft of changes just past the hour mark.

Copper had named a starting line-up showing four changes from the one that had featured at Crawley.

Connor Roberts, Fulton, Wayne Routledge and Celina were the men to come in as Kyle Naughton, George Byers, McKay and Yan Dhanda dropped to the bench, while Erwin Mulder and Joel Asoro were also in the matchday squad.

The Swans made a bright start. Oli McBurnie and Jake Bidwell combined well and, when Routledge floated in a lovely ball to the far post, Roberts could not connect cleanly.

But there was no mistake in the fourth minute as excellent hold-up play from McBurnie and a delightful through ball from Routledge allowed Celina to advance and slide the ball into the far corner.

The Swans were knocking the ball about crisply, and it came as little surprise when they doubled their lead on nine minutes.

More good build-up gave Fulton the chance to pick his head up and bend a lovely curling strike over keeper Stuart Nelson and into the top corner.

Swansea threatened a third when Matt Grimes sent Jake Bidwell scampering down the left, but the full-back’s pull-back for Celina was cut out by the covering Carl Dickinson.

Nelson was soon pushing away a McBurnie shot from Nathan Dyer’s pass as the unrelenting pressure continued.

Celina so nearly produced an absolute screamer in the 22nd minute, letting fly from the angle of the penalty area and beating keeper Nelson all ends up, only for the ball to cannon to safety off the inside of the far post.

But Yeovil pulled one back from their first attempt on goal.

Dickinson swung in a free-kick and Bradbury was able to sneak in at the far post to head across Kristoffer Nordfeldt into the corner of the net.

The Swans sought an instant response, and nearly got it as McBurnie teed up Celina, only for the Kosovo international to slice over.

But the visitors did restore their two-goal lead three minutes before the break, Fulton bundling home from close range after McBurnie’s goal-bound header has been blocked.

It should have been four for the Swans before the break as a lovely move ended with Celina one-on-one with the keeper, but his tame effort was denied by Nelson.

Naughton, Asoro and Byers replaced Roberts, Dyer and Grimes at the interval and the Swans nearly extended their lead as Joe Rodon headed agonisingly wide.

But Fulton made no mistake as he completed his hat-trick nine minutes into the second half, emphatically firing home from Celina’s clever corner.

Routledge was denied by another excellent piece of keeping from Nelson as the winger attempted to round the Yeovil man after another superb move had cut the home defence apart.

Just past the hour and a further seven Swansea subs entered the fray, with only Mulder remaining on the bench.

Seconds later and Byers tried his luck from the edge of the area, with Nelson getting down sharply to parry the ball round the post.

With 15 minutes to play it was 5-1, McKay swooping on a loose pass by Bradbury to find the bottom corner before Baker-Richardson hammered home a rebound.

Swansea City: Kristoffer Nordfeldt; Connor Roberts (Kyle Naughton 46), Mike van der Hoorn (Brandon Cooper 61), Joe Rodon (Cian Harries 61), Jake Bidwell (Declan John 61); Jay Fulton (Jack Evans 61), Matt Grimes (George Byers 46); Nathan Dyer (Joel Asoro 46), Bersant Celina (Yan Dhanda 61), Wayne Routledge (Barrie McKay 61); Oli McBurnie (Courtney Baker-Richardson 61).

Subs not used: Erwin Mulder.