Phil Sumbler
It has been quite a remarkable week or so in the world of Swansea City. As September ticked into October we found ourselves 16th place in the Championship and looking a little nervously over our shoulders.
Fast forward ten days and it’s a very different story as three straight wins have propelled us into a play off position and within three points of the three sides that currently share the Championship lead.
Saturday’s win over Sunderland at the Swansea.com stadium followed superb away wins at West Brom and Watford and were the perfect return from an international break that so many times in the past has disturbed any momentum we may have had as a team.
And the nature of all three of those wins in a week have a pleasurable feeling about them and not just because of the obvious points tally we have taken out of each of them. Coming from behind at both the Hawthorns and Vicarage Road is no easy task and showed a steel about the side that was built on Saturday when we held out firm against a Sunderland side that sensed the chance of getting back into a game that looked lost at half time for them.
It led many on our forums to comment that we would have lost that game a month back and it is difficult to argue as we remember back to the pain of letting those leads slip when looking set for victory against Millwall and Stoke. It showed a new side to Russell Martin’s side, a side that can now get the results that play deserves and all credit must go to the manager and the players for the way things have turned around.
With eight Championship managers already changed this season people were starting to wonder if a ninth may be around the corner with the Swans languishing towards the bottom end of the league table but the three wins – on top of the one against Hull just before the break – have put all those thoughts to the back of pretty much everyone’s mind as the attention starts to turn to those above us rather than worrying about those below.
Burnley and Reading are next up for the Swans – two of the five sides above us in the league – and, on the form we are on, nobody could argue against our chances of getting more positive results from those fixtures and continuing the climb up the table.
There is little doubt that the upturn in fortunes has coincided with small tweaks to the way that we were playing. The return of Steven Benda in goal has added to the change in style and suddenly the play takes a different formation. Where there was little space in the early weeks of the season there is now holes in the midfield that was heavily exposed at times by Darling, Cabango, Grimes and Fulton on Saturday. Ryan Manning is in the form of his life and if we could just get the same tune out of Joel Piroe as we did last season then we could yet be on the verge of something very special.
Harry Darling, scorer of the crucial second goal on Saturday, is in little doubt that it is the strength of the squad that is keeping the run going as he explained via the club’s official website.
Having missed out on several games after being dropped soon after his move from MK Dons, the defender was keen to take the most of his opportunity on Saturday and he certainly did that with an assured performance at the heart of the defence.
“I knew I needed to put in a good performance because I’ve been out for a few weeks and everyone’s been brilliant in defence, so I knew I needed to put a good performance together and I’m just happy to be back in the team,” said Darling.
“I said to myself that I needed to get a few goals this season, so it was nice to get one on my return to the side.
“The boys that have been playing have been brilliant, and we’ve been winning at the end of the day.
“I’ve just kept my head down, looked to train well, and I needed to step in and do my job and hopefully everyone thinks I’ve done that.
“We’re always constantly trying to get better, we’ll look through the video next week so we’ll learn from it, but we did show both sides of the game against Sunderland.
“From the start of the season, we conceded too many last-minute goals.
“That was one thing we really needed to iron out, but I think in the last few games we’ve done that and we’ve been able to hold onto these leads which we hadn’t at the start of the season.”
Russell Martin made four changes to his side on Saturday for the visit of the Black Cats with Darling joined by Joel Latibeaudiere, Luke Cullen and Ollie Cooper all of whom had a huge impact on a game that only served to back our promotion credentials.
Ten days now into the tenth month and it is very much a case at the moment of starting to look up the table. With thirteen games of the season gone, nobody has yet achieved the two points per game barrier that tends to win you promotion and that has given many the chance to believe that things can be possible.
Just seven points separate the top half of the table and thirteen points between top and second bottom tells you much about the competitive edge in this division this season. Russell Martin has shown that he has the potential to get the best out of this squad in recent weeks and right now there is nothing to suggest that we can’t push on from here.
And in the meantime we keep looking up although shortly why can’t we just be looking down on everyone?
Anything is possible.
