Nathan Dyer faces Portsmouth again tonight hailing the benefits of a squad that stuck together
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.
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.
“We’ve stuck together and I think our progress shows that," he told the Western Mail
“Looking at the Portsmouth squad then and now it’s 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.
“You add in the financial problems they’ve had in it’s been hard for them.
“But we’re a team that’s progressed through the years and improved and done better every time.
“We had our first year at this level and showed we could compete, then we just missed out on the play-offs and now we’re third and people are starting to recognise us as a good team.
“I 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.
“It was part of this team’s progress but we haven’t stopped, we’ve carried things on to get to where we are.
“And we know if we continue the good work it will continue to go well for us.
“There’s 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,” said the 22-year-old wideman.
“There’s such a long way to go and it’s not about who is and isn’t around us right now, it’s about us focusing on winning our games and pushing to where we want to be.
“There’s a lot for me to work on in my game because no-one’s the finished article, but I’m working hard and hopefully that will come through soon.”
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballnation/swansea-city-fc/2010/11/26/dyer-hailing-progress-of-flying-swans-91466-27719868/?#ixzz16N9JqGO6