Phil Sumbler
The Swans return to league action this afternoon when they welcome Hull City to the Swansea.com Stadium as they start the busiest period of the season.
The Tigers arrive to start a period of games that will see the Swans play ten games in the next thirty-eight days, a period of games that will take us past the halfway mark of a season that still hasn’t taken on any level of consistency and currently sees the Swans in the bottom third of the division.
Five home games (Hull, Huddersfield, Middlesbrough, Preston and West Brom) and five away games (Leeds, Rotherham, Stoke, Southampton and Coventry) are a series of fixtures that present the Swans with the chance to get a good return of points but with an average of two games a week over that period the Swans will do right to just take it one fixture at a time starting of course this afternoon.
A 3-2 defeat at Ipswich in the last fixture feels a close result on paper but the reality was the home side could have easily doubled their tally on another afternoon and whilst Hull at home feels like a fixture we should win we should not lose sight of the fact that the Tigers are currently 8th in the table and only separated from the play off spots by goal difference.
“We started and finished the game well at Portman Road,” said Duff in his programme notes ahead of today’s fixture. “And were pushing for an equaliser in the final moments despite playing with 10 men.
There was no questioning the attitude of the players, but ultimately we did pay for some costly errors, which were uncharacteristic of us when you look at many of our recent performances.”
Last time out at the Swansea.com Stadium the Swans took a hard earned drawn from a 0-0 draw with Sunderland despite playing with ten men for an hour and Duff will be hoping that the Swans can retain ten men on the pitch this time with Liam Cullen’s red in the last game being another sending off for the Swans.
Looking ahead to the game the Swans boss added “It will be a game between two possession-based team, but for us it is about having that balance in our play where we have purpose in possession. We will want to hurt them with the ball and in our press, and they will want to do the same to us.”
In the Tigers squad Jason Lokilo and Aaron Connolly are both in contention for a place in the squad with Tigers boss Leroy Rosenior saying “The squad is looking good. Jason will be back in and available which is brilliant as he’s been looking really, really good in training.
“I was really worried originally with Aaron. In the game against Huddersfield Town, Liam (Delap) hit the bar with an effort and Aaron tried to follow in and he kicked the bottom of the defender’s foot where his studs are.
“His foot was really swollen and I knew I had to take him off when I originally subbed him on. I was really worried that he had broken it. Fortunately, he hasn’t broken it, but he’s still in a lot of pain, but knowing Aaron and the person he is, he will play through the pain barrier, so to me he will be available for the upcoming games which is a real bright spot for us.
“It will be just about managing the pain barrier on a day-to-day basis. Striking the ball is the biggest problem for him on his foot which isn’t ideal, but he wants pain killers and wants to go through it and do right for the team and that is the sort of attitude I like.”
Whatever happens this afternoon the Swans will have little chance to reflect back on the result with a Wednesday night trip to Elland Road and Leeds United on the horizon before we return back to the Swansea.com next Saturday with the visit of Huddersfield.
A busy week ahead for the Swans but using the one game at a time mentality then let’s start with three points today and see where we go from there!
Prediction: Swansea City 3-0 Hull City
