{"id":17071,"date":"2010-01-23T07:19:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-23T07:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.staging28.planetswans.co.uk\/?p=17071"},"modified":"2021-01-23T13:47:52","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T13:47:52","slug":"pratley-happy-to-prove-critics-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2010\/01\/23\/pratley-happy-to-prove-critics-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Pratley Happy To Prove Critics Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been reported that Swansea City’s fourth place in the Championship is the sign of it being a poor division – reports that Pratley just ignores as the Swans have for most of the season and got on with the job in hand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right back to September and October there has been a sense that the Swansea bubble is about to burst but as the season moves steadily towards its conclusion the bubble appears to get stronger with the Swans currently the 4th best team in the league.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that is something that Pratley knows should be acknowledged even if it has not been so far <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe experts can say whatever they want,\u201d he told the Western Mail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf people look at Swansea in fourth and say it\u2019s a sign the Championship is a poor division, they are entitled to their opinion. We\u2019ll happily be a poor side in a poor Championship which gets promoted to the Premiership.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter everything that went on in the summer, nobody, apart from us and our fans, thought we would be where we are now. We\u2019ve surprised a few people.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do know one thing: this city deserves Premiership football, our supporters deserve to be watching Premiership football.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be life-changing for us all and a chance to show what we are capable of.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s 20-odd games left. When it comes to the end of May that is the time when you can say if you\u2019ve over-achieved or not.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou say things like that now and it can come back to bite you. Talk is cheap, as they say.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys are playing well and no-one would have thought we would be in fourth in January, but if we start saying we are over-achieving or doing well then that\u2019s when problems start.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are nine points off second and we are not even going to rule it out. But I\u2019m not going to say we can finish top two or top six because there are just so many games left.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to keep working hard and, fingers crossed, come the end of the season we will be there or thereabouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come down from the Premiership it can be tough,\u201d said Pratley.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of Championship sides playing against them is a cup final.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTeams are going to their place wanting to upset them, maybe giving a bit more than they would in a normal game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI do think in this division clubs can be a bit quick to change managers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo be where they were in the league and then sack your manager is a strange one, but I guess they just wanted a change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStrachan has come in and is trying to get the players playing the way he wants to play. He\u2019s brought in some new players too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think Middlesbrough are a good side and come the end of the season I believe they will be up and around the play-offs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a good squad of players and we\u2019ve got to be very wary of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t go there thinking that because they are below us in the league we are going to beat them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say we owe them one,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey beat us at our place and now we want to put the record straight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOK, they\u2019ve lost some of their bigger names since then, but sometimes that makes you stronger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople could say we lost Jason Scotland and Jordi Gomez and that we are a weaker side.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut look where we are in the league now \u2013 higher than we were at any time last season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can help a side, it can make a team pull together, so I would not agree they are a weaker side now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

SOURCE: <\/span>http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/footballnation\/swansea-city-fc\/2010\/01\/23\/pratley-happy-to-go-forth-and-focus-on-swansea-job-in-hand-91466-25665105\/?<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been reported that Swansea City’s fourth place in the Championship is the sign of it being a poor division – reports that Pratley just ignores as the Swans have for most of the season and got on with the job in hand. Right back to September and October there has been a sense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}