It was early 2009 when Swansea last played Portsmouth – then FA Cup holders – on their own patch and dumped them out of the competition in the process.<\/p>\n
Dyer’s first goal for the club was the catalyst for that win and he believes that the steady progress the Swans have made since that day has been largely because the squad has pretty much stuck together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve stuck together and I think our progress shows that,” he told the Western Mail<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at the Portsmouth squad then and now it\u2019s an incredible change around, but it does tend to happen now when a Premier club comes down because they have players who are Premier League quality and who want to stay there.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou add in the financial problems they\u2019ve had in it\u2019s been hard for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019re a team that\u2019s progressed through the years and improved and done better every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had our first year at this level and showed we could compete, then we just missed out on the play-offs and now we\u2019re third and people are starting to recognise us as a good team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when we beat Portsmouth that was probably the first time a lot of people outside of this area could see we played good football and also do it against the top teams and get results.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was part of this team\u2019s progress but we haven\u2019t stopped, we\u2019ve carried things on to get to where we are.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we know if we continue the good work it will continue to go well for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the example from a few years ago when Sunderland won promotion under Roy Keane having been right down the bottom but then going on a run late on,\u201d said the 22-year-old wideman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s such a long way to go and it\u2019s not about who is and isn\u2019t around us right now, it\u2019s about us focusing on winning our games and pushing to where we want to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot for me to work on in my game because no-one\u2019s the finished article, but I\u2019m working hard and hopefully that will come through soon.\u201d<\/p>\n