Five things we took from…a win at West Brom

Away victories have not been plentiful this season and the Swans finally recorded their first one since November with a win at West Brom last night thanks to late goals from Joel Piroe and Cyrus Christie.

The result piled the misery onto the home support who exited in their masses when Christie scored the second and made their feelings known at the end of the game as a chorus of boos from those left inside the Hawthorns rang out.

But it was never likely to test the spirit of the Jack Army who were celebrating a league double over West Brom and the breaking of the forty point barrier thanks to the win.

So as we look back on the game what things can we take from a great result for the Swans?

1. Winning breeds confidence – It’s an age old cliche but it is very true at all levels of the game.   Winning can breed confidence and losing can very quickly become a habit.   We needed this win on the road after some pretty dismal away performances and that should now place us in a good position ahead of the visits of Coventry and Fulham to the Swansea.com over the next week.

2. Ntcham swung the game – Olivier Ntcham.   To be fair he has been a bit of an enigma in his time here, there are times he looks almost unplayable and other times where he is just not in the game at all.  However, as we saw last night he is one of the few players we have in the squad capable of turning a game and that is just what he did last night when he came on.  It goes without saying we need much more of that side of Ntcham and much less of the other.

3. Pressure eases on Martin – Nobody is saying here that the pressure on Martin was being turned up but every football manager needs to see his team winning.   Thankfully for the boss we seem able to do that at home but all the things he talked about came right last night.   We didn’t relax and give away early easy goals and we allowed the game to develop and open up.   The more we do this, the more we will win because, frankly, when the games open up our game comes into its own.  The boss will have been a happy man last week especially after Stoke and Sheffield United.

4. Credit to the Jack Army – We talk alot about the importance of the twelfth man and last night you have to give credit to each of the fans who made the trip to the West Midlands.  You could hear them from the first to the last minute on the Sky coverage and there is little doubt that they made a difference to the team and the performance.   West Brom may not be our longest trip of the season but it was a Monday night and on the back of poor away games, those that went deserve the credit.

5. Piroe’s Party – We need Joel Piroe back amongst the goals and he showed again last night just what he can do with the right service.  A classic striker’s finish which gave the keeper little chance.   His goals have dried up a little in amongst the club’s poor run (no surprise that happened) but if we could get him to twenty goals plus before the season ends then we will end up in the top half.   Like winning, scoring becomes a confidence thing and Piroe will push on from here.