Alan Tate was thinking of local rivals when he claimed that complacency won't set in at the Liberty this season

Swansea City are currently looking extremely strong bets for the play offs but that does not mean that they are taking anything from granted.

Since losing at Preston in September, only three sides have taken maximum points off the Swans in the league - Forest (twice) and Newcastle - and both those sides sit above them in the league table.

But despite those hugely impressive stats, Tate is taking nothing for granted and insists that the Swans are doing exactly the same as they prepare for back to back home games against Sheffield Wednesday and West Brom.

“We saw what happened with Cardiff last season,” he told the Western Mail.

“They were dead certs to stay in the play-offs with just four games to go, but then fell out of the top six.

“That is a big warning for us. If you learn from other people’s mistakes instead of your own, it’s a lot better because you don’t suffer the heartbreak they did.

“It is a big buffer between Swansea and seventh place, but, with the amount of games we have this month, it’s easily wiped out.

“Everyone has got to remember we can’t take those nine points for granted. We just have to keep going and try to win every game.

“It’s no good saying that, when we have Blackpool away, we can take that game easy because we have a points cushion between us and them.

“We have got to get to a point where it is impossible for them to catch us.

“That way we know we will have a guaranteed shot at making the Premiership. That’s what everyone here is working for.

“You never want to get complacent because it’s going to come back and bite you,” said Tate.

“The only team in the country that can do that is probably Newport County because I think their season is finished. We won’t be getting carried away here. We will be going game by game and not looking too far ahead because that’s when complacency sets in.

“What happened to Cardiff is a lesson we are all aware of, but it’s not really something we have looked at too much.

“Will it be brought up? Maybe. But we don’t tend to look at other teams.

“We just try to concentrate on ourselves because that’s the only thing we can control. It has worked well for us so far.

We are doing well even though the injuries have come at probably the worst possible time,” he said.

“The lads are performing really well and we have shown great team spirit.

“We never thought we would be in this position now. The first month was pretty bad and, if you had asked people after five games, they would probably have said we would be involved in a relegation scrap by now.

“I didn’t think that was going to be the case. But then I never thought we would be complaining that a refereeing decision against Nottingham Forest was ruining our chances of getting second.

“The lads have shown great character and that’s what you need if you want a chance of going up. That’s all we’ve got now though, a chance.

“We normally say the pressure is on other teams because of their big budgets, but that isn’t the case this week.

“To have a chance of going anywhere the lads have got to deal with that.

“Every home game is huge for us now and, having picked up an away win, we need to build on it.”

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