by Adam Evans
Date: Saturday 26th January, 2019
Venue: Liberty Stadium
Attendance: 15,080
SWANSEA City booked their place in the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup after defeating League One Gillingham at the Liberty Stadium.
The wet conditions did not phase a strong Swansea side as they put on a professional performance.
A brace from Oli McBurnie, a screamer from Bersant Celina and a fourth from Barrie McKay sealed progression for Graham Potter’s side.
This is the second season running that the South Wales outfit have made it to at least the fifth round.
Swansea made a solid start to the match with Barrie McKay’s curling effort thumping the post in the sixth minute.
Just three minutes later, Oli McBurnie saw his header go narrowly wide of the post.
That missed opportunity didn’t matter in the end as the Scotsman nodded home a dinked pass from skipper Leroy Fer.
McBurnie bagged his second when he ran at the heart of the Gillingham defence and drilled his effort past Tomas Holy into the bottom corner.
Six minutes after the break though, the visitors grabbed a goal back. Mark Byrne found Josh Rees free in the area and the midfielder diverted his header past Erwin Mulder.
Grimes looked to have put the Swans’ back to a two goal advantage, but the Gillingham keeper Tomas Holy was quick enough to get down to the shot from outside the area.
Bersant Celina put the game to bed for the home side with just over 15 minutes left to play. The Kosovan international found himself in space from 25 yards out and rifled his shot into the top corner giving Holy no chance.
Five minutes before the final whistle, substitute Daniel James drilled a cross into the danger area and McKay was there to tap it home to give Swansea their fourth of the day.
Tom Eaves did put the ball into the back of the net for the Gills in added time, but it was disallowed for offside.
Swansea also had a chance in injury time, but Celina’s header went straight at the keeper.
Swansea boss Graham Potter was pleased with the overall attitude of his team specifically after Gillingham scored early on in the second half.
“I thought we reacted well,” he said.
“It’s football so you never know. You can be a bit nervy from not too much, but I think when you look at the game over its entirety, we deserved to go through, and we were the better side.
“I’m very happy with the players and the attitude that they showed during the game.”
Gillingham manager and Swansea boy Steve Lovell was also full of praise for his players despite the 4-1 defeat.
“They worked very hard, they gave anything. They couldn’t give anymore. When we got back to 2-1 I thought, perhaps we’ve got a chance of nicking one later on.”
Lovell was impressed by how well Swansea controlled the stages of the match.
“Swansea are an excellent side, a good passing side. In the first half they gave us a lesson in how to pass the ball around, create chances and score goals.”
Swansea City: Erwin Mulder (GK), Mike Van Der Hoorn, Leroy Fer (C) (Jay Fulton 82’), Oli McBurnie (George Byers 82’), Bersant Celina, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Barrie McKay, Matt Grimes, Connor Roberts, Declan John, Courtney Baker-Richardson (Daniel James 70’)
Gillingham: Tomas Holy (GK), Luke O’Neill (Barry Fuller 83’), Bradley Garmston, Max Ehmer, Gabriel Zakuani (C), Tom Eaves, Regan Charles-Cook, Elliott List (Brandon Hanlan 71’), Josh Rees, Mark Byrne, Connor Ogilvie (Dean Parrett 83’)
