Looking to get back to winning ways after Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Middlesbrough, the Irishman’s temporary reign in charge of the first team reaches its fourth game with it looking likely that spell will continue over the quick turnaround of festive fixtures.
The Boro defeat was Sheehan’s first in charge of the club and despite having chances in the first-half to build a lead, it would be another drop of points at home. The result left the Swans in 18th place in the Championship table, only five points outside of the relegation zone.
Visitors Preston, meanwhile, will be looking to put a stronger showing on themselves to boost their play-off bid having hit a rocky patch of four defeats in six games. After taking the lead midway through the first half at Deepdale against Watford they crumbled with the Hornets ruthlessly taking apart Ryan Lowe’s side in the second-half to come out 5-1 winners.
Without a victory in six games at home this season since October, Sheehan is targeting a win in front of the home support to get the Swans back on track and wants his side to be more ruthless in front of goal.
“We are 18th place in the table, there is no hiding away from that. It is not good enough and we know that,” said Sheehan.
“It isn’t going to happen overnight, and any progress will be built on patience.
“Saturday against a possession-based team that were in the playoffs we had more play and more shots.
“The next bit is the final third and being more ruthless to hurt teams on the scoreboard not just the statistics.
“We want to win games playing a specific way, but we don’t have enough wins at home. We need to get the fans on-side and get them involved in the game.
“To do that we need to play with good tempo and intensity. There were a lot of positives, but we need to try and build on them.
“It’s going to be a tough game [against Preston] and a different test again from the game last week.
“I think any team in a difficult moment in this league at any time can change the tide.
“They have shown through the season that they are capable of winning games and are where they are in the table for a reason.
Sheehan confirmed that the Swans will be nearly back to full strength for the festive period with several of the longer-term injured players ready to feature over the festive period.
“Joe Allen is close now and training with the group, as is Azeem [Abdulai], but after being out for a long period they will have to be brought back in the right way,” continued Sheehan.
“Kristian Pederson and Mykola Kukharevych had minutes the other day [with the under-21’s] so now it’s just getting them up to speed.
“Harrison [Ashby] is in and out of the group at the moment but not far enough up to speed to participate in the next couple of games.
“There is a lot of competition for places. Walshy [Liam Walsh] has been unfortunate missing a lot of game time.
“Maybe that is harsh on Charlie coming out of the team, but I wanted to get Walshy back in.
“Charlie [Patino] stat-wise has done well and Jay Fulton and Grimesy [Matt Grimes] have been excellent.
“I think we got the call right and he was really good the other day. There was an element of protection from me when we got to 60 minutes because of the time that he has lost to injury.
“You don’t want to take off one of your best performing players at that moment, but you don’t want to end up losing them but playing on for another 15 minutes. We want him to be available for as many games as he can play.
“We’re expecting a difficult game [against Preston], but if we focus on ourselves and how we try and hurt them by taking the game to them we will give ourselves a chance.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
