Phil Sumbler
The Swans will go in search of a first league win for Michael Duff this afternoon when they take on Preston North End at Deepdale – venue of one of our greatest days.
Nobody is ever likely to forget that magical day forty-two years ago but as we approach another anniversary of our first division debut, the result of that day in 1981, it would be any victory that would be welcome for Michael Duff right now.
The Swans have just two more league games before the first international break of the season and then it ends with the small matter of the first South Wales derby of the season on 16th September so a win for Duff is needed as he would not want to go into the international break after the Bristol City game still searching for that first win.
He faced the press yesterday amongst the predicted transfer questions and talked about progress for his squad when he said “There are loads of things we can do better, but you cannot do everything straight away.
“The important thing from my point of view is to see signs of progress from the things we are doing on the training ground.
“We have talked about being harder to beat, we have talked about being better at set plays. With the ball we can be loads better, but it’s about finding that balance between possession and giving up chances.
“It’s about that balance between the two. It takes time to implement things, you cannot create anything without time.
“It is a results-based industry, but we have only lost one game all season, that is the weirdness of football.
“You just have to keep working, that’s what you need to do.”
In the opposing dugout tomorrow you have Ryan Lowe who has secured two wins and a draw for his side in their opening three games and who will want to build on that tomorrow with a win almost certain to take them into the divisions top six at the final whistle.
Despite the five point gap that already exists between the two teams though he is taking nothing for granted and certainly is aware of the threat that the Swans pose despite the zero in our league win column this season.
“We’ll approach it the same way we’ve approached them all: in real depth of what we’ve got to do to try and get points because Swansea are a fantastic team who play some good football,” said Lowe.
“Michael’s gone in there and changed his way a little bit. When they create an attack they want to finish the attack, they want to end up with something.
“Whereas last season Swansea wanted to keep the ball for numerous passes and open you out, but I think Michael’s got a different agenda. He wants to try and score as many goals as he possibly can and win games.
“I’m not saying last year wasn’t the same, but the fact of the matter is I know they haven’t started as well as they’d have liked, but they’re still a good team.
“They’ve got some good players and they’ll certainly be in and around this season so it’s one we’ve got to take seriously and make sure we put a gameplan together that fits.”
The Swans and Preston kick off at 3pm at Deepdale.
