By Gareth Vincent
South Wales Evening Post

Swansea City signed off as a Championship club in waiting with a comfortable win over ADO Den Haag last night.

Andrea Orlandi notched the only goal on a night where Roberto Martinez's men might easily have chalked up a healthier margin of victory.

Not that the Swansea mood needs lifting - they go into Saturday's second-tier debut at Charlton in high spirits after an encouraging pre-season.

The biggest downside, perhaps, is the injury to Gorka Pintado which means he will play no part against the Addicks.

But even that blow has been cushioned considerably by the timely return to action of Jason Scotland.

He was the shock inclusion in a Swansea starting line-up featuring only a handful of players who look likely to make the cut at The Valley.

Scotland should at least be involved this weekend after making his first start of pre-season last night, but the stomach-injury victim may only be deemed fit enough for the bench.

Dorus de Vries is one of the certs for Charlton, particularly after trialist keeper Derek Soutar failed to return to the Liberty for a planned 45-minute run-out last night, which meant a place for youth-teamer Rhys Wilson on the bench.

Like Ferrie Bodde, de Vries was dishing out handshakes and hugs as Swansea lined up against the Dutch duo's former club.

Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins was also shaking hands before kick-off - with the man from the Football League who presented him with a flag in a bid to make amends for last season's Leeds fiasco.

With memories of the trophy saga still fresh, League representative Jack Taylor was booed for his troubles by sections of the home support.

After that it was the travelling Den Haag fans making most of the noise - with perfect renditions of Swansea's regular songs. Strange.

Den Haag's followers are in buoyant mood following their surprise promotion back to Holland's top division in May, but it was the Championship new boys who dominated here.

The men from The Hague actually started more purposefully, and should have been ahead when Karim Soltani's left-wing cross was steered wastefully wide by Hans van de Haar.

A procession of Swansea chances followed, with Den Haag keeper Robert Zwinkels the busiest man on display.

First he smothered Orlandi's sweetly struck 20-yard volley, then he diverted Febian Brandy's shot before gobbling up Shaun MacDonald's rebound effort.

Brandy and Scotland were enjoying themselves up front, while Swansea were in charge of midfield.

Bodde blew the opportunity to get one over his old mates when he headed wide, then MacDonald lost out to Zwinkels once more after Brandy's clever back-heel had teed him up.

The breakthrough finally came eight minutes before the interval, and it was a fine finish that ended Zwinkels's resistance.

Fed by Leon Britton, Orlandi set off down the left before cutting inside and flummoxing right-back Robin Faber with a neat stepover.

The former Barcelona winger picked his spot and, with his weaker right foot, drilled his second pre-season goal - and only his second in Swansea colours - low into the bottom corner of the net.

Swansea should have doubled their advantage within a minute, but Scotland shot into the side netting when a square ball would have left Bodde with a tap-in.

It was the Trinidad & Tobago man's first mistake.

His evening's work came to an end just after the hour, with Jordi Gomez arriving for the striker in one of numerous changes which interrupted the flow of the game after the break.

As the August drizzle came down, the match was descending into something of a damp squib.

Orlandi did his best to liven things up, but his whipped free-kick flew just the wrong side of Zwinkels's crossbar.

When MacDonald latched onto Mark Gower's corner to get one on target at the death, Den Haag's last line of defence made his umpteenth stop of the night.

And so Swansea had to settle for a 1-0 victory.

Something similar in their next outing would do very nicely indeed.