By Paul Jones
Michael Duff has insisted Swansea City’s resurgence proves their resilience, having bounced upwards from rock bottom.
The Swans head coach reckons his team’s 3-0 victory at Millwall was their best result since he took charge in the summer as they made back-to-back Championship wins.
Duff had taken just two points from a possible 21 in a torrid seven-game winless run in the Championship with the low point being their 2-0 derby defeat to Cardiff City.
But they have responded with a draw and two victories as they collected all three points in south London with goals from Jamal Lowe, Matt Grimes and Mykola Kukharevych..
“It’s probably the best result of my Swansea tenure so far – 3-0 away from home at a tough place to come,” said Duff.
“I thought we saw a bit more of what we wanted to look like. It was some really good football. The reaction’s been good ever since the Cardiff game, where we let everyone down.
“We probably should have had three clean sheets and nine points since then. The players have stuck together through all of it.”
Michael Duff to Swansea City fans right now… pic.twitter.com/JuijFeeNkS
— A Touch Far Vetched (@touchfarvetched) September 30, 2023
Duff has come under fire for the perceived abandonment of the Swans’ familiar passing style, but he insisted the manner of the win was proof his team are still a team who can dominate possession.
“There were lots of positives to take,” he added.
“In the lead up to the penalty, there were more than 40 passes and in the lead up to the second goal there were more than 25 passes.
“It’s very rare that you will dominate a game for 90 minutes. We want to play football, but it has to be built on a foundation.
“We want to get to a point where we’re dominating the ball all the time, but in the Championship there will always be points we come under pressure and that’s when we need the togetherness, team spirit and shape to come through.
“For the last ten minutes, it was really comfortable, because we’d given ourselves the platform.
“We’re miles away from where we want to end up, but with a lot of change at a football club it takes time to settle, but it was nice to watch the last ten minutes relaxed because of the defending we’d shown. We could just watch the players play good football.”
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Swansea struggled to create in the opening stages but took the lead in the 23rd minute. Referee John Busby failed to spot a shirt pull by Jake Cooper inside the penalty area on Jerry Yates but was alerted to the infringement by his assistant.
Lowe produced a stuttering run-up before sending Bartosz Bialkowski the wrong way with the resulting penalty.
The second came after some neat interplay offered an inviting opening for skipper Grimes and his 20-yard strike squeezed under Bialkowski.
Millwall had chances to reduce the deficit, but Swansea goalkeeper Carl Rushworth tipped over a long-distance effort by Ryan Leonard and then produced a point-blank stop from Nisbet – the ball striking him flush in the face.
Home fans vented their anger at Rowett after Swansea scored a third in the 80th minute, Kukharevych headed home Josh Key’s cross from the right of the penalty area.
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It sealed the visitors’ first victory on the road since a 3-0 success at Norwich in April.
Millwall manager Gary Rowett said: “Goals change moods, goals change feelings in stadiums and players’ confidence levels. It shouldn’t do, but that’s the way the game is.
“Sometimes at 0-0 you have to ride those little moments and the first goal was a really poor penalty to give away from where the ball was. We got into some decent positions without having a clinical edge. That was the difference.
“I didn’t like our reaction from 2-0 down. I think we have a habit of conceding goals and showing our frustration rather than fighting until the last second.
“Again we had some big moments, but without that goal it gives you nothing to lift the mood and atmosphere.
“It’s disappointing. The third goal summed it up, we gave it away, crossed it to a lad unmarked to head it in. It was certainly three poor goals from us to concede today.”
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