Swansea City continued their upturn in form under Vitor Matos, securing a 1-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion on New Year’s Day thanks to a wonderful long range effort from Jay Fulton.

Wrexham made it a pair of victories for the two Welsh sides competing in the Championship, while Cardiff played out a 1-1 draw with Wycombe, and Newport lost 2-1 at Bromley.

With matches coming thick and fast over the New Year period, let’s get into the action.

Unlikely match winner Fulton earns Swansea all three points

Midfield Jay Fulton scored his first goal of the season – and only his 17th strike for Swansea in over 300 appearances – to help his side beat a tough West Brom outfit 1-0 on New Year’s Day.

Fulton found the top corner of Joe Wildsmith’s net from 25 yards – possibly with the aid of a slight deflection – to score his first goal in almost 13 months just a minute after coming off the bench.

The Scot’s effort snatched Swansea a fifth win in their past seven games and lifts Matos’ improving side to 15th in the Championship.

The only blot on the copybook was Adam Idah’s serious looking injury, which is set to keep him out of action for a significant period of time.

Matos said Idah “could be” facing months out of action, while Swansea – who are already without Liam Cullen – are waiting for news on Josh Key and Ronald after they were forced off during the New Year’s Day win over West Bromwich Albion.

Key was substituted at half-time after a collision with Callum Styles left him with a foot issue, while Ronald came off late on after his challenge on Ousmane Diakite led to Swansea’s winning goal.

Wrexham march on with rare clean sheet

Goals from Ollie Rathbone and Sam Smith saw Wrexham secure a third straight victory in the Championship, with the festive period proving profitable for the North Walian side.

Striker Smith was handed just his second league start of the campaign while Rathbone was playing from the outset in the Championship for the first time in 2025-26 following a lengthy lay-off with an ankle injury.

And having made five changes from the side that started in the 2-1 victory over Preston North End three days earlier for the contest at Ewood Park, assistant boss Parkin stated that freshness was key to the Red Dragons’ triumph in Lancashire.

“We’re well aware that we’ve got a good squad and we’re well aware that we’re getting people back to full fitness,” Parkin told BBC Sport Wales.

“We’re also aware, we check the numbers, and we’ve seen how far they’ve run in the last two games. We thought that freshness would be key in this game.

“It just shows that the gaffer is not frightened to put players in the team who have been on the bench.

“I’m delighted for them because Ollie Rathbone, Smudger (Smith), they’ve been a big part of what we are this season without probably getting the game time that they would like or maybe deserve at times.

“But they’ve never put their heads down, they’re good citizens, they train properly, they’ve never been any trouble in the group and I’m delighted for both of them.”

Cardiff ‘frustrated’ by Wycombe draw

Cardiff were not left to rue their 1-1 draw with midtable Wycombe Wanderers, as the rest of the top eight in League One all failed to win on New Year’s Day.

Brian Barry-Murphy’s side had the better of the chances at Adams Park, but could not find a second goal after Chris Willock’s opener after six minutes.

“I can’t really ask any more from the players apart from obviously wanting to score the goals that we feel we deserve,” he said after the draw with 13th-placed Wanderers.

“We’ve been so dominant in the game and created so many good chances, chances we would normally take.

“[At Wycombe] we just couldn’t and I’m very pleased with large parts of the performance again.

“We went to Lincoln and Bolton, places like that, and produced what we thought were OK performances but didn’t create enough chances.

“We produced a lot of chances [against Wycombe] and some of our play was exhilarating at times. Overall very pleased with the performance while naturally wanting to have a bit more and score the goals.”

Newport’s revival hits a snag

After a draw and a victory saw Newport lift themselves off the bottom of the EFL and just two points from safety, their mini-revival hit a snag at Bromley, with the top side in League Two emerging the 2-1 winners.

Going into the encounter, the stark contrast between the teams’ fortunes was underlined by Bromley having lost only four games while Newport had won only four times.

Newport held out until just before the final whistle of the opening period beckoned.

Jude Arthurs hit the post and from the rebound Michael Cheek’s powerful drive was directed into the back of the net by Courtney Baker-Richardson, with an own goal credited to the Newport striker.

The Ravens doubled their lead in the 74th minute as Nicke Kabamba met Will Hondermarck’s cross to find the net from close range and Nathan Opoku’s late reply was not enough to affect the outcome.

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