Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal hailed Jordan Ayew’s moment of brilliance after his team sealed their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 victory over Wolves.

Ayew opened the scoring against the Championship leaders, weaving his way through the away defence for a goal reminiscent of Ricky Villa’s strike for Tottenham in the 1981 final replay.

Diogo Jota came off the Wolves bench to level the scores, but Wilfried Bony’s winner three minutes later meant the Premier League’s bottom club sealed only their third home win all season.

A place alongside bitter rivals Cardiff and Newport in the fourth round was Swansea’s reward, only the third time three Welsh teams have made it to that stage of the competition.

Carvalhal said: “In the five games I’ve been in charge we’ve won two, drawn two and lost one. This was the best match we’ve played, especially in the first half and we posed Wolves lots of problems.

“We controlled the first 45 minutes, but after that the tempo was down. We let Wolves get a goal, but we got a second and then we closed the door and made it very difficult.

“It was a great goal from Jordan and he deserves it. He is a fighter and works very hard for the team.

“I’m proud of my players and now we are building confidence and momentum.”

Ayew put Swansea ahead on 11 minutes, gliding past five Wolves defenders and slotting the ball into the bottom corner past the helpless Will Norris.

Wolves had been much improved either side of half-time following a slow start and visiting boss Nuno Espirito Santo introduced Atletico loanee Jota off the bench.

It worked immediately as the Portuguese made it 1-1, capitalising on Kristoffer Nordfeldt’s failure to come off his line and clear the danger.

Swansea soon went back ahead, Bony netting from close range following Tom Carroll’s cross to book a date with League Two promotion contenders Notts County.

“We didn’t come out well, but we reacted and the second half was much better than the first,” said Nuno.

“We drew the second half and had all the momentum, but once again we were behind on the scoreline. I know it’s disappointing and the fans came a long way to support us until the end.

“The result is not good and it’s disappointing, but there are a lot of good things for us to take from this game.

“The first leg should have finished there because we were the better team and had the better chances, but we showed again we are ready to compete against anyone.”