Phil Sumbler
The Swans entertain Preston North End at the Swansea.com Stadium this afternoon with the chance to put the disappointment of an opening day defeat behind them and start the league season at home with a maximum return.
The midweek win over Gillingham was a welcome result but it is the league games that match the most and Luke Williams will most certainly see back to back league games against Preston and Cardiff as a great chance to secure a maximum return and head out of August in the top half of the table.
As has been the case so often in recent season today is just as much about the performance as it is the result with a bigger than average crowd expected for the first home league game of the season giving the chance to secure those people’s attendance for some time to come. Season ticket sales are under 10,000 according to the Swans Trust and that has to send a message to those in charge that they are losing people season on season with there being every chance this season that we will see the lowest crowd for a Championship match at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Today and the next two weeks will dictate much of what that looks like in the coming season and it is as much time for Williams’ side to deliver the promises they make as it is for Coleman and Watson to deliver on their promises in the transfer market. “Our recruitment work is constantly ongoing, and our efforts in this window are far from finished as we aim to improve and strengthen Luke’s squad,” said the Swans Chairman in today’s matchday programme.
On the pitch this has to be the time that we see the “pace and intensity” that we keep being promised but seems to go missing on matchdays. Preston’s change in management this week will not have been one that they planned for all summer but it seems to have been less of a surprise to people in and around Deepdale then it was to the wider Championship population.
That sees them arriving in SA1 with Mike Marsh, a former member of the Swans coaching staff, in temporary charge and he will be looking for a win to stake any claim he may want for that temporary appointment to become a permanent one. Crawley’s Scott Lindsay is allegedly a target for Preston at the moment as far as a new manager is concerned but, as we know all to well in recent seasons, managerial searches can drag on for some time.
Luke Williams is in confident mood as he was looking ahead to the game at the press conference yesterday afternoon “I feel like we are in a good place,” said Williams.
“We know we should win the game in midweek, and we were expected to win the game, but there is a way of winning and the team performed in the way I would like us to perform more often.
“That is something we can achieve, we have some new players and some younger players and we need that time to rehearse and be brave enough to try and play like that in the Championship.
“I have no doubt we can do that.
“The games are already coming thick and fast, no sooner have we debriefed one game than we are preparing for the next so we are back into the flow of the season.
“We learnt a lot from the games so far, and now we have another brilliant opportunity to take a step further forward to being the team we want to be.”
Whilst the focus on many will remain the transfer activity (or in many cases the lack of it) in the market today is all about the action on the pitch and words mean nothing now it is all about what we deliver during the ninety minutes itself and that can only be over to the squad and starting team that Luke Williams gives us.
Over to you.
Kick off at the Swansea.com Stadium is at 3pm, team news lands at 2pm.
