Rob Davies
Russell Martin was a frustrated man after seeing his below par Swans team labour to a draw but still looked on the bright side with the result making it six games unbeaten.
Swansea had the relative luxury of a six day break between games this week but a disjointed display from an unchanged team saw Barnsley take the lead early in the second half before Olivier Ntcham rescued a point.
Martin explained that Ntcham hasn’t been starting due to his Ramadan fasting making a full game difficult but his cameo appearances have been very impressive.
The Swans boss also says that games like today will be a good learning curve ahead of next season where the pressure to win – like today – will be more common after a season of patience and building.
“We started with the same team [from the Derby win] because they deserved to play,” Martin told Wales Online.
“They’ve been brilliant. Olivier is probably not quite in a position to start. He’s going through Ramadan.
“He’s practising his religious beliefs and can’t eat during the day, so it makes it difficult to be at full energy for 90 minutes, so we have to choose when and where to use him. Whenever he’s come on as a sub, games like West Brom, Barnsley earlier on in the season, he’s been brilliant.
“I’m pleased for him. It’s a great finish. He has such technical quality. The frustration for us with Oli, he didn’t have a pre-season, he came in really late, got into a groove and then got injured. It’s just been a bit stop-start for him.
“Next season, with a full pre-season and a year playing in the Championship, I expect him to be a really top player.
“It (the Barnsley game) lacked the energy and intensity of the last three games. It’s a really poor goal to concede, when you go 1-0 down and get yourself back in it and make sure we don’t lose, the mentality was good there.
“I think we’ll learn a lot from today, especially ahead of next season. It was a different pressure on the guys. I don’t like using that word, but there was an expectancy from us with the form we’ve been in to beat a team near the bottom of the table, but it never happens like that. Every game in this league is really difficult. It’ll be a really good learning tool for us.
“It’s really frustrating that we’ve dropped two points. We had some great chances at the end. We lacked a bit of composure and calmness. We got caught up in the frenzy of the game which it had turned into at that point.
“When we scored it was in the balance. It was really open which doesn’t really suit us, but we had to attack the game. After that I thought they were really tired with the amount of work we put into them with the ball. I thought we’d be strong enough to score.
“The referee was really good today, but we should have had a penalty at the end with the handball. It’s frustrating. I’m sure everyone feels frustrated but we will use it to learn and improve, and we’re still unbeaten in six games.”
