Phil Sumbler
There are no easy games at this level but a home game against the Rotherham United class of 2023/24 is as close as it can get and even more so when you consider that the Millers arrive in SA1 having lost thirteen of their seventeen league games in 2024.
Relegation was confirmed for Rotherham some time back and they are now almost twenty points adrift at the bottom of the table and well into their planning for a League One campaign next season. Who joins them in relegation from the Championship looks set to go to the very end of the season but, thankfully for the Swans, the midweek win over Stoke at the dot com has banished any fears that may have lingered around our own relegation chances.
That 3-0 win was based on the kind of performance that Luke Williams called for after the disaster that was last weekend at Middlesbrough and nothing less should be tolerated from his side who have proven that they are capable of delivering the intense passionate game that the boss talks so often about.
The frustration will be there for all concerned if we follow up the excellent midweek performance with a drop in performance and the challenge for Williams will be to keep his side on that level of performance as we enter the last four games of the season. “Our energy, intensity and aggression were far better on Wednesday night,” said the Swans boss. “These are the things you need to show as an absolute minimum.
“We still have a lot of work to do, and a long way to go, but if we have this level of willingness to put bodies on the line and to run for each other it will give us plenty we can build on.
“The message for us now, as a group, is that we cannot be at anything less than full tilt again against Rotherham.
“But I believe that is a message the players are already aware of, they felt it following that Middlesbrough game.
“We were able to put some things right against Stoke, but it’s important we don’t make the same mistake as we did following our win over Cardiff and let our levels drop.”
The Swans will once again be without Nathan Wood who misses out again through injury whilst the close proximity of the two games could leave to other changes being made in the starting line up although Williams is said to be against making more than one or two changes given the midweek fixture list has ended for the season as far as we are concerned.
Rotherham were – unsurprisingly – beaten in midweek by West Brom and with just four wins to their name during the campaign this absolutely has to be a game that we win with no excuses despite us reaching that safety barrier in midweek.
For the Swans this is their penultimate home game of the season with just Millwall to come on the final weekend and, as Matt Grimes says “We’ve not given the fans a lot to celebrate this season to be honest with you, especially at home, so playing in that way is vitally important to give them a boost.
“They pay their hard-earned money to come to the games, and they want to see a team that is exciting, playing on the front foot and winning games and that’s what we have to give them.”
Over to you Swans.
JackArmy.net predicts: Swansea City 4-1 Rotherham
