Ten years at the Liberty: Derby delight

To celebrate Swansea City's tenth season at the Liberty Stadium, we are looking back on the stand-out moments over the last decade.
Here, we go back to a classic derby clash as the Swans see off Cardiff City in Garry Monk's first game in charge.




Swans 3 Cardiff City 0
Premier League
February 8, 2014

Swansea City's highly anticipated Welsh derby clash against rivals Cardiff came on the back of a week of drama at the Liberty Stadium.
After parting company with manager Michael Laudrup, club captain Garry Monk was tasked with guiding the club on an interim basis, and the stakes couldn't have been higher for his first match in charge.
But after the full-time whistle, Monk must have thought that management was a walk in the park; the measure of how well this evening went for the man who had captained the club in all four divisions was that he was afforded a huge ovation upon the full-time whistle.



With the rain pouring down onto the floodlit Liberty pitch, the Swans tore into their opponents from the first whistle. Marvin Emnes caused panic within the Cardiff defence when he surged forward from the halfway line before teeing up Wayne Routledge, whose goal-bound effort was comfortably saved by David Marshall.
The pace of Swansea's start seemed to stun the visitors and Marshall had to be alert again, this time to deny Wilfried Bony just two minutes later.
But Cardiff managed to weather the early storm and carved out a couple of opportunities of their own, but Craig Bellamy - on both occasions - was unable to hit the target.
Considering Swansea's dominance, by half-time, Cardiff headed into the interval the happier of the two sides to see the game remain goalless.



Monk sensed that his side needed to quicken their passing in the second half. He introduced Pablo Hernandez to the fray and got exactly the response he wanted. The Spaniard supplied a perfectly weighted pass to play in
Routledge, who finished with aplomb, stroking the ball past Marshall to make it 1-0.
Cardiff came close to equalising just four minutes later when Bellamy curled a superb 25-yard free-kick onto the top of the crossbar, but it was the Swans that continued to look the more threatening side after suffering that brief scare.
It came as no surprise when the Swans doubled their lead through Nathan Dyer. Routledge floated the ball to the far post to find Dyer, who stooped low to head beyond Marshall.
The two-goal cushion was the very least the vibrant Swans deserved, and the Jack Army were in dreamland when Bony headed home Swansea's third with five minutes left on the clock. The Ivory Coast international climbed above defender Ben Turner to power home a header from Hernandez's inviting free-kick.
Swansea thoroughly deserved their victory - the biggest in this fixture since they beat Cardiff at the Vetch Field in 1995 - on a day that will live long in the memory for their supporters.




Player profile
Pablo Hernandez (2012-2014)
Born in Castellon in April 1985, Pablo Hernandez was a product of Valencia's youth system, operating as a striker in the club's 'B' team during his early years.
After a loan spell with Onda, he finally made his Valencia first-team debut in the last fixture of the 2005-06 season away at Osasuna.
But unable to hold down a regular spot in the starting XI, Hernandez enjoyed another loan stint, this time at second-tier side Cadiz.
Despite impressing during his spell away from the Mestalla Stadium, Hernandez was included in the deal to sign Alexis from Getafe in July 2007, but they would re-buy him for €1 million a year later, subsequently signing him to a six-year deal.
It was upon his return that Hernandez found the consistency to match his undoubted talent. He scored his first goal for Valencia in a 4-0 UEFA Cup victory over Rosenborg before going on to secure a regular spot in Valencia's starting line-up.



His club form earned him a call-up to Spain's international squad for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, in which he played in the final group game - a 2-0 victory over the host nation South Africa. Hernandez went on to score his first goal for Spain in a 5-1 victory over Austria in November 2009.
In August 2012, Hernandez moved to Swansea City for a then-club record fee of £5.5 million. Under the management of Michael Laudrup, the Spanish playmaker enjoyed a terrific first season in the English top flight, which culminated in silverware, following the Swans' Capital One Cup triumph over Bradford City in 2013.
But when Laudrup left the club in February 2014, Hernandez soon followed his former boss out of the Swansea exit door, joining Qatari club Al Arabi in July of the same year.
Hernandez then spent a brief loan spell at Al Nasr before returning to Spain on a further loan deal at Rayo Vallecano.