Vitor Matos' Swansea City reign began with defeat as Derby County claimed a sixth win in seven games to continue their surge towards the Championship play-off places.

Joe Ward and Lars-Jorgen Salvesen struck either side of half-time as Derby produced the ideal response to their weekend loss to Watford.

Swansea gave themselves hope of avoiding defeat when Ethan Galbraith drilled home in the 90th minute, but it was too little, too late as Derby held on to claim all three points.

John Eustace's side move up to seventh - and outside the top six on goal difference alone - thanks to a spectacular upturn in form since their poor start to the season.

But the outlook is much gloomier for Swansea, with head coach Matos unable to make an immediate impact having been named as successor to Alan Sheehan on the eve of the game.

Matos' new team are 20th in the table having suffered four successive defeats and won only two of their past 13 league matches.

Winger Ward gave Derby the lead when he arrived at the back post to head home Callum Elder's inviting cross.

The Rams were ruthless rather than dominant, with their second goal coming after Swansea wasted a succession of opportunities to clear.

Ben Cabango was in the right place to cut out Ward's centre, but his touch only diverted the ball into the path of Salvesen, who marked his first start of the season with a precise finish from 15 yards.

Swansea had sights of goal, with Eom Jisung forcing a diving save from Jacob Widell Zetterstrom and Cabango heading straight at the Derby keeper from point-blank range.

Galbraith's classy finish offered no respite as Swansea were booed off, just as they had been in Sheehan's final game in charge earlier this month.

Matos had taken charge of only one training session with the full Swansea squad before this game, so it might have been unfair to expect too much to change here after their recent struggles.

And while there were some signs of promise from the home side, a win never looked likely after the body blow that was Ward's opener.

Matos and his new-look management team, which in the short term at least features club legends Leon Britton and Joe Allen, have work to do if they are to halt Swansea's increasingly worrying slump in form.

Perhaps Derby's turnaround in fortunes can serve as inspiration for Swansea, given that Eustace's men were just a place above the relegation zone after defeat at Oxford in mid-October.

Since then, Derby have taken 18 points from a possible 21.

Their latest success came despite the absence of the injured Carlton Morris, the second tier's joint-leading goalscorer, as Derby showed the sort of ruthless edge Swansea have craved throughout the season.

Swansea head coach Vitor Matos:

"The result was not good, that's clear. In the game there were good moments that we can build from and I think that's the most important thing, that now we have a starting point to build from.

"We need to improve a lot of things, [that is] clear. But I think the way we need to finish our attacks, the way we have the ball possession we have but we don't create the chances, that's what we need to improve.

"Also the counter-press needs to much more aggressive. There are things we need to improve straight away, it's clear.

"A few things were good, but we need to find much more consistency and keep going, that's the plan."

Derby head coach John Eustace:

"Great three points. It was always going to be a very difficult night with the new manager coming in here.

"We took a while to adapt losing Carlton. We changed the frontline a little tiny bit, so it took a while for them to get going, but we scored a fantastic goal in an area where we felt we could really hurt them.

"Second half I felt really in control. We touched on a couple of things from the defensive point of view and I thought we controlled the majority of the second half and scored a great goal on transition."

On Carlton Morris' injury:

"Carlton's had one scan, he's got a couple more to come.

"You know, it's not as bad as what we think, hopefully it's not a season-ending injury. So hopefully he'll be back in the next couple of months."