Mark Gower insists that the Swans should learn the lessons from the Championship and believe in themselves
The Swans will go into their first ever Premier League clash on Monday night against the big spending of Manchester City and Gower is calling on his team mates to learn the lessons from their opening blows in the Championship three years ago.
Gower said “In that first year in the Championship, it took us 10 or 15 games to realise we were actually good enough to play in the division
“We went to Molineux and places like that and we were thinking to ourselves ‘Are we good enough to be here?’.
“We were a club who had come up through the leagues, and playing against some established names was a problem for us.
“You wonder whether you deserve to be in that league and it’s intimidating.
“But we had a meeting one day with Roberto, and it all came out.
“We realised we were a good side and that we could compete at that level, and after that we never looked back.
“We can’t be intimidated like we were in the Championship, and I don’t think we will be because most of the squad have had three years playing against some big clubs in that league,” he adds.
“That big-club factor is there in the Championship — a lot of them have spent time in the Premier League.
“Obviously this season is another notch up for us, but I think that experience will help.
“Hitting the ground running will be important to us.
“Momentum is important I think, and it would be great if we could carry on the momentum we had at the end of last season.
“Make no bones about it, our first few away games are going to be tough but, on the flip-side, the home games are a chance to pick up some points.
“There’s a league within a league in this division and, if we can take a few points early on, it will be a mental boost.
“If after five or six games you don’t see yourselves at the bottom, that will be a boost for us. That would go a long way towards making sure we’re not down there at the end of the season.”
This article first appeared on JACKARMY.net.