Pure Swansea manager Jack Midwinter says Saturday’s win was his side “back to being us”. He has warned them not to start eyeing top spot before Treowen Stars visit on Friday night.
Pure beat ten-man Cardiff Draconians 2-0 at Swansea Bay Sports Park, a week after their first league defeat of the season at Ynyshir Albion.
Friday’s rearranged game is their game in hand, and a win would take them back to the top of the Novira Cymru South.
‘A 2-0 over a 4-3 any day of the week’
Midwinter said the result mattered more than the manner: “It didn’t really matter, in my head, how we did it, but we needed to get back to winning ways.”
Pure had let in nine goals in their previous two games, and he said: “It sort of hit home to the players and it hit home to me that that’s not what we want to be about.”
He added: “Ideally I’d take a 2-0 win over a 4-3 or a 5-4 any day of the week. So it was nice to get back to a clean sheet.”
He singled out Morgan Wright, Ollie Roberts and Harvey Chapman, and said: “The attackers will always get the points in this team, but it was rewarding to see those guys back to the levels that we expected them to be at.”
‘Decent, and that’s probably all we were’
It was goalless at the break. Midwinter said: “We switched play okay, we connected well, we made decent chances, but there was no real quality in the end product.”
He told his players they had been decent, and said: “If we can step up a gear or two, I think we’ll win the game, and we scored in three or four minutes of the second half.”
‘Probably the signing of the summer’
Bradley Gibbings scored, set up a goal and won the penalty. Midwinter said: “He has probably been the signing of the summer.”
He added: “We’ve given him all the support and love that he needs to be successful, and he’s also given that back in abundance.”
Midwinter said Danny Williams, who scored the second, had “the best game for us to date”.
He said of the whole side: “That was what Pure are, we’re a hard-working team, we’ve got lots of energy, we’ve got lots of quality and we have a way of playing.”
‘You can’t overlook a team like Treowen’
Midwinter is wary of people looking at the table and assuming Friday’s win is a given.
He said: “But I don’t think you can overlook a team like Treowen.”
He rates them as a strong side who have come through a difficult spell with injuries and suspensions.
He added: “They’ll be a really tough opponent on Friday night.”
Before the original fixture was called off last month, he warned that Treowen’s form wasn’t true to who they are.
Top six the aim, and the winter test
Midwinter is not getting carried away a third of the way into the season. He said: “Our ambition and aim this season is to finish in the top six.”
He added: “We’re being talked about as a team in that promotion area but we’re not yet getting carried away and dreaming too big.”
He thinks the winter will tell: “You have to sort of take into consideration November, December, January when the weather’s tough and the pitches are heavy and people are travelling more.”
He said: “Come the first of January we’ll see who we are, and we’ll go from there.”
‘Come and support the boys’
With the Swans’ Championship season paused for the international break, Midwinter pointed out that Pure are the only fixture on Friday night.
He said: “If football fans in the area haven’t got the Swans to follow or their local team to follow, come down, come and support the boys.”
He added: “If we can get three, four hundred people there supporting us, cheering us on and cheering our goals, it’ll only support the boys and encourage them to get over the line on Friday night.”
Pure Swansea host Treowen Stars at Swansea Bay Sports Park on Friday 13 November (7.30pm kick-off).
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