Rob Davies
Russell Martin says the picture is becoming clearer and clearer as to what he needs for next season after his team extended their unbeaten run to eight games with a draw against Middlesbrough.
The Swans bounced back immediately from Riley McGree’s opener to level through Michael Obafemi but it was another reasonable performance except for some concerns defensively.
Martin immediately took the blame for the defensive mishaps that saw McGree open the scoring with the expansive style of playing out from the back regularly seeing gilt edged chances offered to the opposition.
Martin hopes that the momentum is building towards a real push next season, something which he says he’s excited about.
He told Wales Online: “Momentum helps us in terms of the feeling the players and supporters have for next season.
“It helps us in terms of learning what we need. I think we’re just becoming clearer and clearer with every game in what we need to improve.
“We’ll keep learning and growing. We have so many young men displaying unbelievable courage, especially in possession, and we just need to keep challenging them and each other. I’m really excited about next season already, but I want us to finish really strongly.”
On the game, which after a dull first half turned into a real thriller after the interval, Martin says that the team need to avoid as many “scary moments” defensively.
“I thought it was a really high level game. The first-half I really liked. We had so much dominance and control. We have to make more of that.
“We had some really good moments and lacked that little bit of composure and quality. The start of the second-half, an uncharacteristic mistake, that’s on me. Grimesy has been incredible, so brave.
“I’m grateful to them [players] for the way they reacted and the game came to life I guess. At 1-1 the atmosphere shot up. The game became really open and we wanted to score quickly because we got caught up in the emotion. The game became far too open. It was scary stuff. They had a few too many chances and we’ll learn from that.”
The fault for the ‘Boro goal was on Grimes … under no pressure, plays a sloppy ball to red shirt . That said, what was Fisher trying to do?