Rob Davies
Russell Martin made two key substitutions against West Brom that delivered with aplomb and he couldn’t have been more delighted with what he saw at the Hawthorns.
Trailing 2-1 from goals by Jake Livermore – his first since 2020 – and Grady Diangana, Olivier Ntcham shrugged off the latter to run towards goal and finished with his left foot from just outside the area.
Further drama came when Armstrong Oko-Flex was penalised for a soft penalty but Karlan Grant was denied from the spot by Steven Benda’s legs before Ntcham set-up Obafemi to make it 3-2 with just a minute of normal time left.
The Swans boss, and team for that matter, has taken significant criticism this season for a lack of improvement on last season but these last two wins have offered some real encouragement that it may be a good season.
There are still concerns – I still have quite a few – but nobody can deny that this was a fantastic result and showed a real resilience against a team battling to save their season and perhaps even their own manager.
Martin told the press post match:
“I spoke to Michael just before he came on. I said ‘it’s written for you if you really want it, the fans are singing for you, you’ve had a great week with Ireland, this is the moment, this is the time’.
“The fans certainly helped that. It would have done Michael the world of good. It’s just about consistency, for everyone.
“With Michael, it’s just consistent behaviour, it’s really that simple. When he finds a level of consistency like he did in the second half of last season, he’ll be incredible. I hope the week he’s had with Ireland and today will be the catalyst for him to get back to that regularly. If he does, he’s brilliant.
“The fans were incredible. To hear the Welsh anthem late on with the game at 2-2, the atmosphere shifted totally with Steven’s save, and the composure after the save, to have a spell on the ball and to take the temperature of the whole stadium down, was incredible. The fans played their part, no doubt about it.”
The Swans move up to 10th in the Championship ahead of a trip to Watford on Wednesday.
