Russell Martin ‘incredibly proud’ as Swansea hit back to earn draw

Posted Sunday, January 16, 2022 by PA

Russell Martin said he could not be prouder of his Swansea side after their battling 1-1 draw at Huddersfield.

Danel Sinani gave Huddersfield a 15th-minute lead with a simple tap-in but Swansea went close to equalising through Ryan Manning and Cyrus Christie either side of half-time before they got their reward when Flynn Downes levelled with 12 minutes to go.

Downes went close again in stoppage time and Martin said: “We could have probably had the three points and I don’t think anyone could have complained.

“I’m incredibly proud of the players for how they performed in the second half. I’m so proud and loved so much of our performance.

“It stops the run of poor results. To get a point in that way was incredible. We played with great energy in the second half and the fans played their part.

“It was a big day for us on the back of three poor results.

“We have not had a full training session for five weeks or played in front of fans.

“It has been a really difficult time, especially with the transfer window and players wondering about their future.

“The guys on the pitch today did me proud. We didn’t start as well as we intended to then Ben Hamer made a big save.

“We were good at the end of the first half, but we felt we needed to play with more belief in the second half.

“The intensity and courage they showed was excellent and they deserved the goal.

“We need to live all the time like we played in the second half, but it is not easy when we are playing teams who are really well prepared.”

Huddersfield head coach Carlos Corberan admitted his side had not deserved victory.

“I think the draw was a deserved point, but it is true we suffered more than we should have to get that point,” he said.

“The maximum we deserved today was a draw. To defend for 45 minutes is a long time to defend.

“Today was like two games in one. We played well in the first half and had chances to score the second goal, but the second half was different. Sinani suffered an injury, and then we couldn’t attack.

“We couldn’t play with two wingers as a result and had to play with three midfielders. The team was more comfortable playing with two wingers.

“In the second half, we didn’t find the solutions in the middle of the pitch. We couldn’t break their press and find solutions to attack. They kept the ball really well.

“The first half was good. We knew we were playing against a team who will take risks.

“It was difficult to keep the tempo and aggression that we had in the first half. We were playing long and did not manage the game. We did not counter-attack in the second half like we did in the first half.

“We need to reinforce the things that we are doing really well. When you stop doing that you change the dynamic of the game. Swansea are a hard team to recover the ball against.

“We had good moments and good positions that we didn’t use in the second half. We needed to do more things with the ball. When we didn’t do that, things were more difficult.”