Swansea City drew at home to Sheffield United in a goalless draw at the Swansea.Com stadium in front on the SKY Sports TV cameras last night. 16,000 was the capped capacity for the game and they watched a solid performance from the swans.

Russell Martin seemed extremely happy post match and on reflection, despite scoring no goals, his overall assessment was pleasing. “The players did what we asked them to, their fitness isn’t there yet, we can all see that, and it’s pleasing to see them do what we asked them to do. Yeah, they are doing brilliantly. They deserve a lot of credit against a team who are going to be up there this season, we had six players under the age of 22, and Ryan Manning who is still looking to get match fit. His first ninety minutes”

The first minutes of the game really did dictate the way the first half would go, clever possession from the swans, albeit with little cutting edge resulted in little or no response to the home sides tactics. Jamie Paterson looked lively linking in with debutant Flynn Downes and captain Matt Grimes but the lack of pace and decision making was the reason Swansea City did not really carve out a real chance in the first forty five. Shots though by Latibeaudiere and Cullen were promising. Sheffield United at the other end were as blunt as they could be, and when he was called in to action swans keeper Steve Benda was up to the job despite one worrying moment dwelling too long on the ball. Half way through the half he saved easily from a shot from outside of the area, but that was all he really had to do. Benda remained calm, and his ball handling from set pieces was again dominant and reassuring.

Ryan Manning was the real reason that the swans looked sound at the back alongside a Brandon Cooper who at times looked like he had been playing there for years. That was the pleasing aspect for Martin “ Ryan Manning was outstanding the way he managed himself and his game tonight, and Brandon Cooper handled it all fantastically well, he deserves a huge amount of credit in a position which is really important for us, really proud”

Joel Latibeaudiere too was singled out for praise in his new role at wing back “ Joel is doing really well, for the last two games he has been very good” Martin pointed out. “There has been a disrupted pre season, but we have a really strong culture in this group, but yes pre season hasn’t been good for the squad. But when we do get fully fit there will be some really brilliant moments, and I’m looking forward to that”

Despite the lack of clear cut chances and Liam Cullen struggling in a more withdrawn role Martin does see the positives in the work done to date. “ I think we need to add people who are going to help us, no matter where that is on the pitch. The priority is to get organised that gives us a chance to control the game. Over the past two weeks we haven’t had that much time to focus on the top end of the pitch, those explosive actions we all want to see in the final third. We may need say one or two players to help that but the guys here already are doing brilliantly “

On strengthening Russell Martin confirmed that Ethan Laird was watching the game from the stands and will undergo a medical before his season long loan starts this weekend. If there was some hesitancy in his voice it was around Ethan Laird’s understanding of his role at Swansea. “ Ethan needs a medical, but he does need to sit down with us and see how it is going to work, we will talk and see where it goes from there. He played a wing back role for MK brilliantly last season, he can play centre back as well. He will add character, he is a fantastic person, a lovely guy “

On injuries, Ryan Bennett and Kyle Naughton are only out until next week, but Liam Walsh and Korey Smith are out for longer. When pressed again on new faces coming in “ I’m not concerned about how many loans or who we need to be honest, anyone coming in has to add to the group, we have real clarity in what we need to do. We know what we want to add and how to do it, I can’t give any numbers, the group is all good here. We are asking the players here now to do things they didn’t do last year, and it’s working slowly”

Talking to Sky Sports on Matt Grimes, Martin reiterated his position “ I think Matt is a wonderful footballer and the things he does off the ball, things that many people don’t see really go a long way to reinforcing our control on the game. We are doing things at the moment to keep Matt here at the club. He wants to be here and wants to be a part of what we are doing here. A lot has changed in the time we have been here”

It was noticeable during last nights game that Flynn Downes is an extremely competent ball playing midfielder. He looked at home with Grimes in midfield much to Martin’s pleasure “ I thought Flynn got better and better as the game went on, his pressing and fitness was noticeable as he bed in to the game “

When pressed on more money being available Martin responded “ Yeah, we are really positive” responded the swans boss. “ Jake ( Silverstein) was here tonight and we’ve had conversations with the other owners, we are all working together to make sure we all know where we are at, ok, it won’t be on the level of Sheffield United but we are comfortable that we can do what we need with the money that is available”

The Russell Martin way of playing is obviously more than a two week light touch, it will take months of building and shaping before we see a swans side back at its best. In the second half last night although tired the swans did press forwards and Jamal Lowe before being subbed off went close with a low drive. The real frustration remains the desire to pass backwards when clear space was either available to pass forwards or cover ground in an attacking sense, but Martin wanted to make it clear it’s really going to take more effort and time. “ We ve has less than two weeks in to a process to deliver, all the focus at the minute is the guys at the back and in the middle to enable us to control games. After that we will layer on the final third, but we have to prioritise stuff over time. We had some really good moments tonight, we just didn’t make the most of them. Jamal worked really hard for the team as well. What we want up top requires masses of energy so sometimes changes in the game have to be made “

We didn’t create enough chances today, I didn’t feel we were in too much danger either. We didn’t create enough to win the game. I trust my players, they are working hard and today we missed a little bit of energy, but I hope the next game will be the next step and we will have a better performance.

Blades manager, SlaviÅ¡a Jokanović “We need to grow up and show more in the next game. We only did enough for a point, my team pushed to the last second and fighting for the victory. It can sometimes be a prudent decision to take the point but I prefer to push for the three points. Tonight we stay with one but one point is not enough for us.”

You could clearly see what Martin wants throughout the ninety minutes last night, it will require a far more higher level of fitness and hard work from the squad. The sometimes ponderous passing will surely then give way to a more athletic and energetic attacking game. The blades seemed more alarmed than the swans at the style of play throughout the game. Only McGoldrick seemed capable of breaking down the swans defence. The return of Olly McBurnie was met with applause and boo’s, and he will mark his twenty minutes on the pitch down as below average at best. Rhian Brewster too did little to impress. Overall it was a decent showing, the vast majority of swans fans seem happy with the weeks work, and are looking forwards already to a home game against Stoke City in midweek before taking on Bristol City next Friday night - again LIVE on Sky Sports.

Swansea City: Benda; Cabango, B Cooper, Manning **; Latibeaudiere, Downes, Grimes (C), Bidwell; Paterson (Dhanda 88); Lowe (Piroe 63), Cullen (Whittaker 72).

Subs not used: Webb, McFayden, Williams, Joseph.

Yellow card: Grimes 51

Sheffield United: Ramsdale; Baldock, Basham, Egan, Robinson; Berge, Norwood; Burke (Osborn 58), McGoldrick, Brewster (Bogle 77), Sharp (C) (McBurnie 58).

Subs not used: Verrips, Fleck, Freeman, Norrington-Davies.

Yellow cards: Baldock 12, McBurnie 88

Referee: Keith Stroud

Attendance: 15,946

** Man of the Match

Match Highlights

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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