Phil Sumbler
The Swans showed yesterday just what they are capable of as they brushed aside an in-form Cardiff City side with some ease and put in a performance that has been missing for every single game this season.
For ninety minutes the Swans pushed, pressed and played with the intensity that Luke Williams has talked about and whilst the two goal margin could easily have been more it gives us more than enough signs that this kind of performance is within the squad that we have.
A couple of weeks ago against Blackburn we talked on these pages about “turning the corner” which was not aimed to be a statement that we were the finished article and even after yesterday’s comprehensive performance we are still not a finished article but there should be more than enough within the performance to suggest to people that there are better days ahead.
The Swans went into the derby fixture on the back of a performance against Bristol City last weekend that just about summed up the season to date. A limp defeat intertwined by bucket loads of possession but the failure to have a shot on target tells you all you wanted to understand about the performance. Passing without a purpose if you like.
The performance at Ashton Gate gave memories of the pathetic way Michael Duff’s side gave up a proud derby record at the Cardiff City Stadium last September and it was those memories that drove the Swans on yesterday to produce the best performance of the season by some distance.
There have been more and more good signs in the past few weeks for the Swans, Bristol City aside, and finally yesterday there was a performance that lasted the ninety minutes and what an occasion and atmosphere to do it with. There was a feeling back amongst the support yesterday that this was a game that everyone was needed to be together and from the pre-match atmosphere right through the ninety minutes everyone was united with one clear belief that winning was everything but for us the performance also remains doubly important.
If we are to get the fans back in the ground on a weekly basis then the teams need to put in performances that they showed yesterday on a regular basis. Not just in the bigger games but weekly. That same passion and belief that we showed yesterday needs to reappear at Hillsbrough on Good Friday and back at the dot com when QPR are here on Easter Monday. Those games are equally important – maybe more so given the league positions of both sides. Whilst we have never believed that we will be relegated, go through the next two games unbeaten and even the most pessimistic of Swans fans can banish any fears that they have of League One football next season.
Luke Williams will now have two weeks with the majority of his squad to work on all the positives that his side showed yesterday. From the way that his defence was prepared to shut down just about every Cardiff attack, through the way that his midfield pressed at the highest levels possible across the pitch and into the way that the wide men were prepared to take on people on the outside and look to get the ball into the middle of the park.
The Swans had twenty shots at goal yesterday which tells you much about the attacking intent that is within the side – rarely has a Swans side over the past four or five years got to that level of attacking intent and it just highlighted what we are starting to pull together at the club. Luke Williams hailed the performance of Matt Grimes after the game and he was right to do so. The Swans captain controlled the game from midfield and it remains a fact that he plays a much better game alongside Joe Allen than any other midfielder. That will be a challenge for Paul Watson and Andy Coleman this season in finding someone in the profile of Joe Allen if we are to make this midfield as effective as we saw yesterday afternoon.
Everybody who has been involved in Swansea City this season has talked about the Swansea Way. Yesterday showed just what the Swansea Way is really about. A team that delivers on the pitch and a team that shows pride and passion in everything that they want to achieve on that pitch. From the very first minute Ronald was encouraging the East Stand to make as much noise as possible and that continued throughout the game. The Swans were one and that has to be the same week in week out, a message that Luke Williams will deliver to his players no doubt over the coming days.
“We knew we had to be right on it from the start and I thought, to a man, we were,” Swans opening goal scorer Liam Cullen said after the game.
“We were not us in the away game so to win in the way we did means a lot. There is no better game to win, is there really?
“We knew coming into it we had to right the wrongs from the game earlier in the season because that game earlier in the season was definitely not a reflection of Swansea City.
“Coming into this game that just gave us that extra little bit of motivation, and to win in the way we did was great.”
The dust will settle quickly on yesterday’s performance – although we can milk it nicely for a couple of days – and the more “mundane” fixtures will await us for the last eight games of the season. And we need to see the same pride, passion and belief in each of those and take that into the summer where the hard work will be done off the pitch and (as has been said before) needs to be done correctly.
But for now lets remember that normal service has resumed in the order of Welsh football and there are brighter days ahead for Swansea City.
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Ivor Allchurch
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