By Joe Jones
Notts County's evening in the limelight ended up being as one-sided as Apollo Creed's bout with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and yielded the same outcome as Swansea City ran out 8-1 winners in Tuesday night's FA Cup fourth-round replay at the Liberty Stadium.
With the game being televised and Swansea being held to a 1-1 draw in the first game at Meadow Lane, there was real hope that the Magpies would be able to register a very plausible giant killing against a Premier League side who, despite enjoying an upturn in form, remain in a relegation dogfight.
However, things did not go to plan as Carlos Carvalhal's charges cavalcaded into County's half from the off and tested Adam Collin through Tammy Abraham and Nathan Dyer before finding the breakthrough on 18 minutes.
Luciano Narsingh, who struck the opener in the first encounter, was instrumental once again second time round as Kyle Naughton set him free down the right, reaching the byline before cutting back for Abraham to rifle past Collin at the near post.
Before there was even time to properly write down and post the goal information on social media, the Swans doubled their lead, Abraham turning provider with a perfectly weighted through ball which found Dyer, who in turn sidefooted home.
Goal number three came on the half-hour mark as Narsingh, once again deep inside the Notts half, cut the ball back for Dyer to sweep a first-time shot from just outside the area across Collin and into the far corner.
For a couple of minutes, hope was restored among the Black and White Army when Noor Husin, who struck a wondergoal against Crewe at the weekend, was on hand to make the most of a failed Swansea clearance to curl a superb effort from 20 yards out beyond Kristoffer Nordfeldt and just inside the post.
That hope was snuffed out just before the break, however, as Narsingh ran on to a diagonal pass from Kyle Bartley to break free on the right once again, before yet another weighted cutback found Abraham, who slotted past Collin for a 4-1 half-time lead.
There was to be little in the way of damage limitation, however, as Swansea - who, it has to be said, are a completely different beast in recent weeks from the meek outfit of before, given they've beaten Arsenal and Liverpool under Carvalhal's watch - continued to slice through the County defence like a hot knife through butter.
Save from Jon Stead's effort early in the second half, which Nordfeldt kept out, it was largely one-way traffic and four more goals would be scored by the Swans, through Naughton, who punished Collin's poor punched clearance; Wayne Routledge, who placed a low 18-yard shot into the corner; Tom Carroll, who rifled a superb effort into the top corner from range; and Daniel James dispatched number eight.
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