Potter thrilled with second half as Swansea dash Blades promotion charge

Posted Sunday, January 20, 2019 by PA

Graham Potter praised his Swansea side’s second-half reaction after they sealed a 1-0 win over Sheffield United in their Championship clash at the Liberty Stadium.

Potter’s mood was tempered by the news defender Joe Rodon will be out for six weeks with a broken metatarsal suffered in the early stages.

But after Oli McBurnie’s 11th goal of the season gave extended the Welsh side’s unbeaten run to five matches, the Swansea boss couldn’t hide his delight.

“We struggled to get any real fluidity in the first 20 minutes,” Potter said. “For the second half I just asked the players to play better.

“In fairness they did. In the second half I thought we were really good. We managed to stretch the game a bit and Oli played a little deeper so we had more combinations and a threat in behind.

“We had to survive a little bit as Sheffield United were pumping balls into the box and they are a good team, but we are delighted with a 1-0 win and it shows the players have character. I am very happy.”

Rodon limped off in the 21st minute to be replaced by Cameron Carter-Vickers. Potter revealed the centre-half faces a spell on the sidelines and explained why he left Wilfried Bony out of his squad.

Bony has been linked with a January move to Turkey or Qatar and Potter added: “Joe has broken his metatarsal so he’s out for six weeks. Wilfried felt his knee a little bit, but it’s nothing serious.

“He had a little injection just to calm it down, but I think he’ll be training on Monday or Tuesday. There is nothing to report on him leaving. It’s just speculation.”

United dominated the first half, but failed to make their chances pay as strikers Billy Sharp and David McGoldrick missed superb opportunities.

Swansea were poor before the break, but improved after when Potter introduced Dan James for Wayne Routledge who had a calf injury.

James made a big impact and Swansea scored the only goal of the game in the 65th minute.

Nathan Dyer played a neat one-two with Mike van der Hoorn and crossed for McBurnie who couldn’t miss.

United goalkeeper Dean Henderson produced two superb saves from Bersant Celina and James, but Swansea held on.

Chris Wilder saw his United team miss a good opportunity to make up ground on Championship leaders Leeds who lost at Stoke.

“I thought we were outstanding in the first half in the way we controlled the game against a really talented group of players,” Wilder said.

“But we should have put the game to bed. We should have been two up at half time and I shouldn’t have been making changes after half time to get back into the game. I should have been making changes to see out the game.

“In the first 10 minutes of the second half we got a little bit sloppy. They changed their shape which gave us a little bit of problem, but we allowed them a foothold into the game.

“They had one bit of quality, but we did that half a dozen times and couldn’t find the finish.

“Then, when we were chasing the game, we were disappointed with the final ball.”