Swansea City 3 Preston North End 0 – Your player ratings

BakaJacks player ratings:

Vigouroux - 8
A couple of saves to make, but otherwise very happy day at the office for him. Excellent distribution and his first clean sheet of the season he will sleep happy tonight

Tymon - 8
Lots of energy up and down, some of his first half interplay with Ronald was beautiful. Huffed and puffed a bit in the second half, came off for Tjoe-A-On

Darling - 8
Excellent defensive effort, kept the ball moving and can also be pleased with his first clean sheet of the season. Some might argue lucky not to concede a penalty but I have never see a penalty given for the ball hitting the arm of a player breaking their fall from a sliding challenge.

Cabango - 8
Nearly caught napping in the first half but just about got away with that one. That aside I thought he had an overall excellent game, in the second half when it all clicked some of his passes to beat the press were exquisite.

Key - 7
A loose pass from Key almost gifted PNE a goal when the game was still 0-0. Subbed relatively early on for Naughton, looks like he is still getting fully back up to speed

Grimes - 8
Looked so much better with the Fulton-Grimes axis broken up. Sometimes he dropped deep for the ball, other times he was playing with his head up and picked out a few beautiful passes. First goal of the season from the spot.

Franco - 8
Was everywhere, sometimes dropping deep to offer himself as an out ball and other times pushing forwards to offer Cooper and the wingers another option. Tried a spectacular overhead kick in the first half which was just over, subbed for Fulton

Ronald - 9
My man of the match. He picked up where he left off after tormenting Gillingham in midweek. Always looking to attack and looked dangerous almost every time he went forward. Got the first of hopefully many assists to come for Vipotnik.

Cooper - 7
Busy in the upper end of the pitch. Pretty sure his shot was going in before it deflected off Abdulai, at least he got an assist out of it. One of this best showings in a Swansea shirt for over a year

Eom - 8
Bright, busy and dangerous. It was his unwillingness to give up on a lost cause that won the penalty in the first half. Subbed for Abdulai but likely that was pre planned based on the timing

Cullen - 7
Unfortunate to lose out on an assist after his cut back for Cooper went in off Abdulai. That aside he wasn't able to get involved too much but on several occasions he was able to bring wingers into play and hold the ball up. Subbed for Vipotnik.

Naughton - 7
Solid and dependable as always. Replaced Key and offered plenty of encouragement for Abdulai to push forward and attack.

Abdulai - 8
Gets a bonus point for getting a goal no matter how little he knew about it. A bit braver attacking than against Boro, still clearly not a winger but currently the closest fitting square peg we have to that round hole that is a spare winger.

Fulton - 7
Slotted in almost seamlessly for Franco, played his part in the third goal with a perfectly weighted ball between the defenders for Ronald. Why don't we see more of this side of his game more often?

Vipotnik - 8
Pressed and harried and won the ball back on a few occasions. Will be chuffed to get his first goal for the Swans and it seemed to be exactly the type of goal we can come to expect from him.

Tjoe-A-On - 7
Came on for his league debut late on after Tymon began to tire. A few promising moments pushing on in attack from left back, will be one to develop and nurture (not neuter!) I think

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Key and Cabango both had huge ricks early on that could have handed goals to Preston. Difference between them was that Cabango recovered and had one of the best games I've seen from him in a long time. I thought Key continued to be pretty awful and looked very rusty. Naughton was a significant upgrade today. Not that I care when we win 3-0 mind.

As said on the matchday thread, I thought Cullen had a fine game. His relentless pressing definitely took a toll on their defenders and he had a couple of lovely touches, including what should have been an assist for Cooper. It was noticeable how much more time on the ball they had after he went off (at least until the third goal, after which they had pretty much given up).

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Agree that Cabango had that one wobble but recovered well and actually looked more like Cabango and less like Cabungo for the first time in maybe five or six months. Surely the big challenge for him now has to be to get consistency into his game performing at that level week in week out.

Key being subbed after roughly 55 minutes to me was a pre planned move, looks like a managed injury recovery plan to get him fully back up to speed.

Cullen had a decent game, the only problem that Cullen has is that he is not a goal threat in the way that Zan showed that he is in that 30ish period he spent on the pitch. His lay off to Fulton before immediately spinning in behind the defender ready for the cross that he knew was going to come from Ronald was prime forward play at its best.

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