Swansea boss Martin elated after late derby win at Cardiff

Swansea manager Russell Martin praised his players for an ‘incredible’ fourth successive south Wales derby win after the dramatic 3-2 victory at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Ben Cabango scored in the ninth minute of added time to seal an unprecedented double-double for the Swans – and left Cardiff deep in Championship relegation trouble.

Martin said: “Firstly I thought we played really well, coming away from home, we had the best moments.

“I’m amazingly grateful to the players, and the supporters. I’d rather not have that every week for the heart-rate, but the emotion at the end was incredible. You saw how together everyone is.

“Mike Eames (the kit-man) gave the team talk today. People like him play such an important role.”

Cardiff fans thought an 83rd-minute header from Sory Kaba had stopped the losing rot against their bitter rivals.

Kaba’s goal added to a 35th minute Jaden Philogene effort as Cardiff cancelled out earlier strikes from Dutch striker Joel Piroe and midfielder Liam Cullen that had put the Swans 2-0 ahead.

Martin, whose team appear to have recovered from a rocky spell in January and February that cost them any chance of a play-off push, added: “I think we had the better chances. It just takes a bit of courage.

“From no-one doing two-in-a-row to doing four-in-a-row is an incredible feat, in every single one we’ve won, we’ve won it in our way.”

Distraught

Defeat was a sixth in 10 games for Cardiff boss Sabri Lamouchi, who was distraught at the way his team fell behind so early, and then conceded so late.

Lamouchi said: “I can complain about the scenario.

“When you start the game this way and when you finish the game this way, you can be upset, disappointed, complain.

“We paid the price for some mistakes in the beginning, one or two goals, easy.

“We can’t concede this goal in the last minute, it was just a cruel scenario.

“Five goals in a derby is a lot of goals. Unfortunately, it was not in our favour.

“We came back into the game with a fantastic goal from Jaden before the break.

“That gave us a chance to come back into the game with a different mentality and a different quality. We pressed them a little bit better.

“Kaba scored another goal and I was thinking it was an important goal, but we finished… as you know.

“Over 95 minutes (had gone), we need to keep the ball, put the ball away, the small details. I said to the players before the game and at the end.

“I can’t complain about the desire to come back into the game, but we need to play with the same mentality and desire to keep the result because one point is one point.”