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Swansea City Can Be Good, Bad And Ugly, Says Liam Cullen

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By David Williams

Liam Cullen believes Swansea City are learning to win ugly.

The Swans striker scored the only goal as his team beat Blackburn Rovers 1-0 at the weekend for their first Ewood Park victory since 1971.

Manager Michael Duff watched his side hold on to win their third consecutive game on the road and climb up to 13th, a place and a point behind Blackburn who will rue the chances missed.

Swansea had lost back-to-back home matches to Leicester City and Watford, but Wales striker Cullen says they are now capable of winning games when not at their best.

“It’s our first win here in 52 years, so it is a big win for us,” said Cullen.

“It may not have been as pretty as we would have wanted it to be, we were a little bit scrappy in the second half, but we dug in and three points is three points.

“A lot of the lads have mentioned how together we are as a group, and I think games like this show it.

“We get on so well, and have fun together, but we also enjoy working hard together.

“It’s really rewarding when you get a win like that.

“It was really important to get a reaction like that. We felt we performed well against Leicester, but we let our standards drop in midweek, and we have responded and got the result.”

Cullen’s goal was his second of the Championship season and leaves the club five points adrift of the play-off places.

“It’s a really nice feeling, as soon as the pass came into me there was only one thing in my mind. I knew I was going to take a touch inside and go for that far corner,” he added.

“Thankfully for me it went in the back of the net, it was good to be back on the scoresheet and I hope that can continue.”

Manager Duff admitted: “I think they started the game well. No getting away from that.

“The first five to 10 minutes they started really well, so we tweaked a couple of things in the press and I think for the next 50-55 minutes, we dominated the game.

“I thought we played out, played through them. We probably should have been 2-0 or 3-0 up at that point.

“We’ve had a goal disallowed which is offside, we’ve had another goal disallowed which is onside. Then, it’s the human element. The lads are probably thinking the game should be out of sight now and it’s not, and they’re a good team.

“It was a case of trying to do the other side of the game well, whilst trying to pick them off on the counter attack.

“People put their bodies on their line, defended, made blocks when they had to. For all their opportunities, Carl (Rushworth) has not really made a brilliant save. It definitely wasn’t comfortable but it was a well-earned win in the end.”

Blackburn’s Jon Dahl Tomasson said: “We are of course extremely disappointed. We actually began the game really well and why we were not in front in first minute, we still don’t know.

“I think we started really well, the first 20-25 minutes. After that, defensively there was a bit of distance in the team which was not good enough. We were sloppy sometimes on the ball. “In the second half, I think we were the better team, creating plenty of chances and good moments to win the game.

“But (it was) one of those days when we are not scoring. We shouldn’t forget this young team have won three games on the bounce. There will be those days as well, we all know that.

“I think Swansea are really good at killing the game, killing the time as well. Every free-kick, every time the ball went out, it took ages. They did it really well and it’s difficult to get momentum.”

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