BUZZING Blackburn Rovers boss Gary Bowyer revealed a last-minute pep talk with Rudy Gestede paid off after his in-demand top-scorer set his side on their way to an impressive 3-1 FA Cup win over Premier League Swansea City.

Bowyer sent the striker on 60 minutes into yesterday’s fourth-round Ewood Park tie after Swansea had negated the threat of the lively Josh King.

And, before Gestede stepped on to the pitch for his first appearance since Rovers rejected a £3.5m bid from Crystal Palace for his services, he was given one last bit of advice from his boss.

And it was advice he certainly took onboard as he fired in his 13th goal of the season to the delight of the fans who cheered his name throughout.

It was left up to Craig Conway to seal a success that will see Rovers’ take their place in the hat for tomorrow night’s fifth-round draw.

Bowyer said: “We said to Rudy as he was going on, ‘go and score the winner’.

“It wasn’t quite the winner but he made a big impact because that’s what he is, a big player for us.

“I’m delighted for him because he has conducted himself unbelievably throughout this speculation.

“He’s never ran to the press and said anything, he’s just got on with his training and it doesn’t surprise me he went on and produced what he produced for us.”

Swansea had Kyle Bartley sent off in the seventh minute for hauling down King when was clean through on goal.

But that did not stop them from taking the lead through Gylfi Sigurdsson who was also shown a red card in injury-time for a late lunge on Chris Taylor, the player who had brought Rovers level almost immediately with a fine finish to a flowing team move.

Bowyer said: “I thought the lads were terrific. We knew we were always going to be up against a quality team and even when they went down to 10 men we knew it was going to be a challenge because they keep the ball ever so well.

“I thought Bartley’s sending off was a bit harsh but once the referee has given the decision then he has to follow the letter of the law and send him off.

“We knew we had an opportunity to get in with Kingy’s pace and it’s something that we had worked on.

“The challenge then was to try and stay in the game still because you saw the response from Swansea with an outstanding goal from an outstanding player.

“But these lads are an honest bunch, there was no chance they were going to feel sorry for themselves and we scored a great goal to equalise.

“The build-up between Craig Conway and Josh King to get Markus Olsson in was excellent and it was a great back-post header from Tom Cairney, which we were shocked with it because he does like to protect his quiff!

“It was a great knockback and Tayls’ touch and finish was excellent.”

Bowyer, who would like another top-flight club at home in the last 16, added: “It’s a good feeling for the boys and it should fill them with confidence as they’ve more than matched themselves a quality Premiership side. We’re delighted we’re through.”

Swansea boss Gary Monk felt the dismissals of Bartley and Sigurdsson were harsh.

He added: “Going down 10 men so early, all that preparation you do in week goes out of the window.

“We tried to get through until half-time. They got the equaliser but at half-time we regrouped and we were thinking we could maybe change things later in the game and have a go.

“We were doing what we wanted, we kept shape and I don’t remember them having many shots.

“But just as we were getting to the period where we had talked about trying to win it, we conceded a poor goal with poor marking at a set-piece.

“We can’t afford to do that whoever you are playing against and then third goal came as we were pushing on.”