A MESSAGE FROM
RUSSELL MARTIN G
ood evening and welcome back to the Swansea.com Stadium for our Championship game against Fulham. It’s only three days since we were last in action here as we entertained Coventry and made it back-to-back league wins and three home victories on the bounce. I was really pleased with the result and loved our first half performance, but I didn’t really love how we played in the second half. We have a fairly young team who haven’t been in the position of being 3-0 up very often and we didn’t manage the game well enough in the second period. I have said before that I don’t get too emotional about results. I get emotional about performances because performing well and performing consistently will get you the results in the end. We have to do better than we did in the second half on Saturday, but having said that I was
extremely proud of the way we played in the first 45 minutes. To play the way we play takes huge courage and huge attention to detail. The players looked after each other and the ball in the first half and the intensity to win the ball back was excellent – we limited Coventry to one shot and that was from our mistake. Our first goal was an excellent ex ample of ball speed, one touch play and the intensity that we know we can produce on a regular basis, and Pato took it superbly to give us the platform to go on and control the game how we wanted in that opening period. Our second goal was probably one that appeared more direct to some, but it certainly wasn’t. The pass from Fish to start the move was unbelievable, he showed massive courage to pick out Flynn and his body movement on the turn was excellent, which allowed him spac e to drive forward and pick out Michael who finished brilliantly.
I’m really pleased for Michael because he’s finding some form now after a difficult start with us but he’s working hard and getting the rewards. The second half was a bit messy for us, and we didn’t have anywhere near as much control as I’d like but back-to-back wins shows the hard work the guys are putting in. Tonight’s visitors Fulham are enjoying a fantastic season under Marco Silva and more than deserve their place at the top of the table. Even though we lost the reverse fixture at Craven Cottage, I thought our performance that night was great and we showed the team we want to be by dominating possession, creating chances and playing with massive courage and connection. Your support here on Saturday was incredible once again and hopefully we can produce another performance for you to be proud of Enjoy the game, Russell
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