Swansea City have more time today to familiarise themselves with all the hard work the coaches and trainers gave out in since returning to pre season training. Today is the final ‘scheduled’ behind closed doors game before the squad travel to Charlton Athletic next weekend. Kick off today is 1pm UK time.

These games it seems are enjoyed by the swans coaching staff. They get an opportunity to see their players in calmer surroundings on familiar territory. Russell Martin isn’t a great believer in long distance travelling to ensure games are played, enough of that happens in the actual season. He wants to see how the hard work done in training rolls over to a friendly in competitive conditions.

Talking on his reasoning for these type of fixtures, swans boss Russell Martin explained. “The behind-closed’ doors friendlies serve a purpose, without doubt, for a few reasons. Our pitch is not ready at the stadium, but we do not want to be doing a huge amount of travelling because we do an awful lot of travelling during the season itself. We have chosen two away games so we at least expose ourselves to that again, but we did not want too much of it as it is physically demanding. Also, we have brilliant pitches at Fairwood that allow us to experiment and look at things. So, they serve a purpose, but obviously you cannot replicate what we got here in terms of the crowd and an atmosphere”

Just over three hundred Swansea City fans were at the 1-1 draw away at Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday evening. It was a familiar passing game, but it was clear there are different strategies being worked on to keep their opponents guessing this season. Martin added “Physically the players are definitely in a better place than last season in terms of being conditioned for the way we want to play. We are pleased with where we are at”

The real test of course comes in two weeks time at the New York Stadium, Rotherham. Not the best of first day of the season games against a club newly promoted, and again on the up. The swans will have to be careful the occasion doesn’t get to them. First day of the season games often don’t dictate the way the season will go, there’s so much to prove.

Players who won’t feature today are Joe Allen and Ben Cabango, both are still recovering from injury. Ryan Bennett hasn’t been seen that often since the first day of pre season training. He hasn’t featured in training nor the week in Surrey. We are told he is sorting his own future out, but that particular scenario is taking its time whilst the swans pay him eighty five thousand pounds a month.

On Cabango, Martin reveleaed “He has had no real work into him physically, so it's about getting him into a condition where he can come and train with us fully and not risk injury. It's like a mini pre-season for Ben now.He'll be back training with the group by the end of this week, it will be modified training and he will still be doing conditioning work. I expect him to be with us for the Charlton game hopefully, all being well. He's in unbelievable physical shape. He's made a real effort, they all have. I don't like to put exact timescales on it, but I expect him to be available and in and around it for the first game, fingers crossed.”

The game isn’t televised nor will it be featured LIVE however, Swansea City fans can keep up to date on our Bristol Rovers thread here
–> Swans v Rovers Match Day Thread

More on this game and the latest Swansea City news to come on Swansea Independent.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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