Swansea City have a full strength squad to choose from but Morgan Whittaker hasn’t travelled north to Middlesbrough. The game kicks off at 3pm UK time at the Riverside stadium, Middlesbrough. Tickets for home and away fans are still available. Cash only sales to Swansea City fans.

Team news is in.

Middlesbrough: Luke Daniels, Anfernee Dijksteel, Marcus Tavernier, Andraz Sporar, Jonny Howson (captain), Paddy McNair, Duncan Watmore, Sol Bamba, Matt Crooks, Marc Bola, Isaiah Jones.

Substitutes: Joe Lumley, Neil Taylor, Dael Fry, Onel Hernandez, Uche Ikpeazu, Martin Payero, James Lea Siliki.

Swansea City: Ben Hamer; Ben Cabango, Kyle Naughton, Rhys Williams; Ethan Laird, Flynn Downes, Matt Grimes (captain), Ryan Manning; Korey Smith, Jamie Paterson; Joel Piroe.

Substitutes: Steven Benda, Ryan Bennett, Michael Obafemi, Olivier Ntcham, Liam Cullen, Joel Latibeaudiere, Jake Bidwell.

The Swansea brief.
Russell Martin has made two changes to his Swansea City side as Ben Cabango and Korey Smith return to the starting line-up. Ryan Bennett and Olivier Ntcham are the players to drop to the bench following last weekend's defeat against Reading. Michael Obafemi returns to the matchday squad and is named among the substitutes. Ben Hamer continues in goal, with Cabango lining up alongside Rhys Williams and Kyle Naughton in defence. Ethan Laird and Ryan Manning continue in the wing-back roles, while captain Matt Grimes and Flynn Downes pair up in midfield. Smith and Jamie Paterson will provide support to striker Joel Piroe.

Russell Martin : “I feel like against Derby and Barnsley in particular, you’d suggest we were the home and dominant team,” he said. The Barnsley performance, I loved it. We were so dominant. It took a while to break them down and you have to respect them. But I thought it was a really strong away performance, and I think these guys are brave enough now to be able to play how we want to, home or away.. At 1-0 up you can easily slip into the mindset of trying to hang on to what you’ve got, but we didn’t do that, we had the courage to continue to play. That is the challenge for us, to be the team we want to be everywhere we go. Never losing the way we want to play. This game will be the same.”

Chris Wilder: “Everybody has taken on board what we’ve tried to do and hopefully they’ve enjoyed it. "I’ve got to say, I’m not that bothered if they haven’t enjoyed it. There have been lots of smiles on the faces, we want this to be a good place to come and work. I want them to enjoy their work. When you get players of the attitude that want to come into work and want to improve their game and enjoy the sessions that we’ve put on for them, you get a better standard out of them overall. Hopefully we can do that with the players that we’ve got."

Photographs licensed from Reuters

Swansea City Polls