The Swans unbeaten run under Sheehan continued as South Korean forward Ji-Sung Eom’s stunning first-half long-range strike dealt a blow to Middlesbrough’s Championship play-offs hopes and all but secured status in the Championship for another season for the home side.
Eom’s first Swansea goal, in his 30th appearance for the club, was the least Sheehan’s team deserved for their impressive first-half display where if it had not been for the heroics of visiting goalkeeper Mark Travers the Swans would have been out of sight at the break.
Boro’ striker Tommy Conway came closest to responding for the disappointing visitors drawing a reaction save by Lawrence Vigouroux in the second period, but the Swans number one would be largely untroubled on an afternoon where the Swans under Sheehan once again got their tactics spot on.
Swansea’s victory means Sheehan has an impressive return of seven points from three games with no goals conceded, having taken charge following the departure of Luke Williams last month.
When questioned on the performance by the media after the game Sheehan felt it was the buy-in from the players to the detail that has made the difference.
“As you can see, they’re [Middlesbrough] a team with a lot of quality,” said Sheehan.
“A lot of investment and a lot of big money’s been spent on these individuals. The manager has done a good job and has been there for a few years now.
“The preparation for these games has got to be right on point because these games if you’re not perfect, you can lose by two or three.
“I think it’s important to be very proud of the players today. We showed a different side to us. If I was going to analyse, it was probably halfway between a Blackburn and a Preston performance.
“To go off at half time, one up with I think nine or ten shots and limit them is what we wanted to do. We wanted to compress the space and be aggressive in the right areas.
“I think we’ve got to be very proud of them, you know, because they’re leaving everything out there on the football pitch.
“We’ve got Marg [Martyn Margetson] here who’s exceptional at what he does, defensively and constantly bringing in different strategies again for different oppositions and we talk about it as staff.
“We changed [back] to a back four [in Sheehan’s three games in charge] and probably changed the system slightly but there’s little things behind every game.
Ultimately, we defend as a team and we attack as a team because if we become disjointed, the game can become really hard for us.”
Sheehan was full of praise for match-winner Ji-Sung Eom who scored his first goal for the club. In the build-up to the match the Irishman felt Eom needed a moment to kick-start his Swansea career and certainly felt he delivered.
“It was a magic goal; he’s missed a few easier chances than that this season.
“He has got wonderful flashes of individual quality. But then it’s kind of, can you make the headlines?
“We are relying on certain moments to go in our favour and we need the big moments from the attacking players and that was a big moment from him today.
“We’re all really delighted for him. You can see how happy he was. So, these are the moments that make you so pleased.”
Sheehan had no update on the injury status of centre back Harry Darling, who went off in the second-half of the win with a knock but says attacker Myles Peart-Harris’ back injury suffered against Preston North End on Tuesday night is a bad one that will likely see his spell in south Wales end prematurely.
“Hopefully, it’s not serious at all because obviously he’s done really well, but credit to Hannes [Delcroix] when he came on.
“I don’t think it’s good with the scan [on Peart-Harris]. He’s going be [injured for] a good while now with his back. He’s going to go back to Brentford to get assessed but it doesn’t look good.
“It’s a shame because he’s a lovely kid, and he gave us something very different than other people within the team. I’m very disappointed for him.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
