“I’d love to see us in a year’s time”

Maybe it’s a bit like a broken record but Russell Martin is still of the belief that next year his team will be better and stronger after this season of transition.

The Swans boss was still convinced after the defeat at Blackpool that his team were dominant even in the first half when a relentless Blackpool side should have put his team to the sword.

Martin has long maintained that the rewards from the work put in this campaign will be reaped next season once players have adjusted and further signings arrive this summer.

The difficulty is that the support of the fans gets tested when the trajectory is downwards rather than up and the statistics since the decent run of form back in October and November is anything but positive. It’s enough to make you grateful for the point deductions for Reading and Derby County.

But for now the Swans boss is keen for the players to keep developing and learning going forward and admits he hasn’t been helped by some selection issues recently.

“We were dominant in the first half, although we didn’t create enough.

“We’ve done what we did with the players we had. Korey [Smith] was feeling a bit tight in his hamstring, so to try and play him at wing-back was difficult, Hannes [Wolf] is not fit yet, Nat is not ready to start.

“We have a lot of young men who finished the game. We just need to keep learning and growing. I’d love to see us in a year’s time, especially when we come back here.”