Swansea City : Luke makes it Alan’s show after crucial win at Hull City
Sunday, 11th Feb 2024 08:00 by @Cornish67David

Luke Williams was delighted to gather up his first league win as Swansea City head coach after defeating Hull City 1-0 at the MKM Stadium yesterday. A superb Liam Cullen strike from a set piece corner was enough to see his side triumph and gather all the points.

With the Swans desperate for the points after a very slow but encouraging start to Williams tenure, this was just what Swansea City needed. A calm and well drilled defence with a new tactic on display the Swans were deserving of the win. Their hosts started too cautiously which gave Swansea time to inflict their tactics on the opposition. Early opportunities came for the Swans and then in the eleventh minute to they struck with the only goal of the game.

Williams gave the main praise to coach Alan Sheehan for the crucial goal. "There were quite a few things I liked about that performance. The openings we made were very deliberate. We tried to make the moves to put the ball in the right place and I think we did that pretty well. Then I loved that Alan Sheehan gave us this work of art of a set-piece. The players listened to everything he asked them to do and delivered it perfectly and scored. I'm happy we've scored a goal away from home against a very good team and the back line dictated the distance of the team. They didn't allow the team to become deep and try to protect the lead too much. They kept us aggressive. They kept us up the pitch and so I'm really happy with that. When you're head coach and at the tactical session and you get to just stand at the side of the goal and watch Alan go to work with the set-pieces and watch the players concentrate. It's a privilege to witness it. It's an incredible tool to have as a head coach. We have such experience in the staff, and that can win you a game of football”

That was quite benevolent of Williams, but this win was a total team effort. Even when the Swans went ahead they continued to press throughout the game looking for more goals. This has been a bug bear of Luke Williams in recent weeks, yesterday it was different. His more aggressive style of play and persistence in looking for a second goal as much as the goal scored won this game. That was the tactic.

Williams continued, “We made some good openings, which was encouraging. They had good moments too because they are a good side, but it was not a smash and grab, we deserved something from the game and we got. We defended well too, it felt like there were about fifty players in the box at the end. They thew everything at us, they had a six-and-a-half foot goalkeeper up in the box trying to get them a goal. We needed to stand up to that, and we did that brilliantly.”

You can watch his full post match interview here -