Roberto Hails Character

All too often in the past we have seen Swansea sides crumble under pressure, especially away from home, but this side has shown over the 8 months of Roberto’s reign that they have some fight about them and that can only bode well for the remainder of the season. With the quality of Duffy, Robinson and Britton available as sub options on Saturday you know you have something decent in front of you that can do things.

Winning at Yeovil is a great result for anybody in this division – it has never been an easy place to go to get any form of result and to get one in the conditions that the players faced on Saturday was great – especially if you factor in the near two week break since the last game.

And these were all things not lost on Roberto who was full of praise for his side after the game “Character is the word today,” he enthused. “If you look at the results we’ve had here in the past, we’ve never been able to be ourselves but today we were.

“I was very pleased with how we dealt with the difficulties caused by the pressure Yeovil put us under. The only time we weren’t good enough was at the start of the second half and we got punished. But to be able to bounce back the way we have at Yeovil, is very pleasing.

“Bouncing back like that, getting on the ball and scoring the winning goal, it tells you a lot about this squad.

“We like to get the ball down and play. But the platform you need to show your skill and talent comes from character and being able to adapt to the circumstances.

“What pleased me more than anything is that the boys understand how we want to play, they know we will play football in the right way and they know they can still get results, even if they play that way at a difficult ground like this.

“It took us a while to adjust to the conditions and the pitch,” he admitted. “But the boys kept going and I thought the first goal was a brilliant goal all-round.

“It was a great finish from Jason Scotland. He deserves it because of the hard work he has put in when things weren’t going his way.

“If you look at the important goals, the ones that win games, Jason is always there. That’s the important thing about being a striker. I’m very pleased for him and I’m sure we will see a lot of goals from Jason in the next few games.”

Roberto was also full of praise for his central midfield pairing of Darren Pratley and Ferrie Bodde – the latter whom got the winning goal 11 minutes from time.

“We need them to make things happen and I thought the partnership they have created was the difference,” he said. “You need those two to dictate things in the middle if our wide players are to get into the game. Their distribution and the way they brought people into the game was at a very high standard.

“They’ve always had a good understanding, but against Yeovil they had to adapt to a very different style of football. I don’t think Ferrie will have played in many games like that.

“We know how good they are on the ball and how they can affect games. But in these conditions, how they adapt and being effective is the difference between winning and losing.”

And would he be changing the First XI for the game on Friday night?

“It’s not just a winning team, it’s a winning squad,” he explained. “I don’t think we have a first XI in my squad.

“It’s a big squad where anyone is capable of playing and they need to make sure they grab the shirt whenever it comes round. We need to keep a shared responsibility throughout the squad.”