The Swansea City defender was clearly in a mood to take a swipe back after hearing the comments from Jay Bothroyd ahead of the game when he said Swansea were not the same team as last year.
And the Welsh international was in the mood to knock Cardiff’s route one football when he told the Western Mail โI donโt know when they turned into Stoke City.โ
Stoke have been much criticised in the past two years for their route one football under Tony Pulis and Ash was clearly thinking the Swans’ visitors were turning into a similar side after the game at the Liberty.
And on the subject of Bothroyd’s pre-match comments, Williams added โWe believe we donโt get the respect we deserve from every team โ and Cardiff sum it up
โWe believe they think theyโre better than us, and it riles us.
โEvery week itโs identical โ no one talks about us anywhere.
โPeople think weโre just a pretty passing team and if teams get at us they can win,โ he added.
โBut maybe those watching this game will have realised thatโs not the case, because we showed we can also dig in when we have to.
โSoon someoneโs going to have to start paying attention.
โHopefully, this win will have gone a fair way to doing something about it.
โI still doubt if people will be talking us up as play-off contenders, so we have to keep shoving it down their throats.
โThen when we get up there, itโs a fact, people canโt argue.
โAnd weโll keep going about our business and keep playing football the Swansea City way.
โI donโt think the whole match was the prettiest spectacle,โ said the 25-year-old centre-half.
โI think we played OK, but I donโt know when they turned into Stoke City.
โEvery throw-in, free-kick and even from the kick-off, they went route one.
โWe thought theyโd have played a bit better football like they did last season.
โWe were missing the height of Garry Monk at the back, so maybe that was in their thinking.
โWe thought they didnโt have much else, so we just wanted to stand strong, which we did.
โMonks is a massive part of the team,โ he said. โTatey has played at centre-back loads of times, so that wasnโt an issue.
โBut when we saw Monks limping before kick-off and he said he couldnโt play, a few of us worked hard to make sure no-one dropped their heads. And it seemed to work.โ