Swansea City 3-0 Plymouth Argyle: Swans ease Championship relegation fears as visitors remain in deep trouble

Swansea eased their relegation concerns with a 3-0 win over Plymouth that added to those of the visitors.

Lewis O'Brien, Harry Darling and Josh Key scored first-half goals as Swansea moved above the Sky Bet Championship's traditional 50-point safety mark.

Caretaker manager Alan Sheehan has now taken 14 points from eight league games since taking the reins following the departure of Luke Williams in February.

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While Swansea, now 14th with 51 points, can surely look forward to another season of Championship football next season, Plymouth are fast running out of time to retain their second-tier status.

Adam Randell forced Swansea goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux to scramble across his line and push out a well-struck free-kick at 1-0, but this was a dismal Plymouth performance with so much at stake.

Argyle remain five points from Derby in 21st with five games to play and are further disadvantaged by their woeful goal difference of minus 39.

Miron Muslic's side needed an 11-goal win to escape bottom spot at Luton's expense but arrived in South Wales in decent form after taking seven points from four games.

But Swansea struck inside four minutes as Plymouth conceded their 79th league goal of the season, one more than League One Crawley to become statistically the worst defence in the top four tiers of English football.

Key won an initial duel near halfway and fed Ronald, who strode past Bali Mumba with comfort to deliver a fine cross.

O'Brien arrived unchecked eight yards out to register with a diving header, his first goal in English football since September 2022.

The midfielder had suddenly got a taste for scoring with a 25-yard shot blocked by Kornel Szucs, but Swansea doubled their lead after 22 minutes as Randell chopped down Ji-Sung Eom to earn a yellow card.

Eom swung over the resulting free-kick and Darling was left unmarked to nod home his fourth goal of season from close range.

The third arrived after 35 minutes as Joe Allen, recalled to the starting line-up for the first time since January 18, intercepted Matthew Sorinola's careless pass.

Goncalo Franco kept the move going and Key celebrated his first goal of the campaign as the ball sailed over the head of Conor Hazard in the Argyle sticks from 25 yards.

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Franco's outlandish volley was held just under the crossbar, Zan Vipotnik blazed over from point-blank territory, and Hazard clawed out Eom's header.

Eom was released again as Plymouth waited in vain for an offside flag, but the South Korean's finish lacked precision and Swansea had to settle for their joint-biggest victory of the season.

The managers

Swansea's Alan Sheehan:

"Are we safe? I don't know. It's hard to know. I don't really look there. We want to chase teams and be the best version of ourselves.

"I don't think you can say that complacency is a word you can associate with this group of players."

Asked whether he saw the 50-point mark as a guarantee for survival, Sheehan said: "I suppose it is to an extent. It's a good achievement from where we were.

"But now it's about getting to the next level. We've jumped another place, the challenge is always to finish as high as you can."

Sheehan has taken 14 points from eight league games since taking over following the departure of Luke Williams in February.

He said: "It is an outstanding return. Very pleased with the performance as that's as complete as you can potentially hope for.

"Some of our play was top, top level. People keep asking 'What does an Alan Sheehan team look like?' and I think you've seen how adaptable we are.

"We put in a proper performance, really fast attacking. Aggressive as hell all over the pitch and another clean sheet."

Plymouth's Miron Muslic:

"The game was done in the first half. It was very tough after a strong team performance against Norwich [Plymouth won 2-1].

"Every time we have an opportunity to move closer and take a big step we can't. Every time we prepare to make the next step after a good performance we disappear.

"That's why I'm disappointed and why we are in this situation. Every opponent is capable of realising the moment, and every time we have the chance to do this we simply give it away.

"I know the difficulty of this task but it's possible. We have to win [against] Sheffield United."

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