Athlone native Alan Sheehan will be given an opportunity to stake his claim to get the manager’s job with Championship side Swansea City on a long-term basis as the club extended his interim spell as boss.
The former Ireland Under-21 cap, who was promoted from his coaching role at the club and appointed as caretaker manager of the Swans when Luke Williams was sacked two weeks ago, oversaw a 3-0 win over Blackburn Rovers in his first game and it was expected that he’d be at the helm for a midweek test against Preston today.
Following an outstanding FA Cup victory over Burnley that sent them to the quarterfinals and a strong mid-table position in the Championship, Preston will pose a different kind of challenge to Blackburn Rovers.
The Swans have Joe Allen back in the squad following what Sheehan has called a fantastic training week: “You have to train properly every day, We’ve seen a lot of wonderful individual performances and some good team performances but it’s that consistent level of building that winning culture.”
It seems Sheehan also has his eye on those who have not fared so well selection wise this season, “You always have to go and back it up, we want to go there and be positive and find a way to be really competitive in the game.
It will be a different kind of game, different conditions” There is clearly a gradual attempt to change the mindset of this Swansea City squad by ‘building confidence and character’ That signifies that the squad needed a mental rebuild after a year of losing games, in some cases dreadfully.
It won’t come as a surprise that Sheehan has been asked by director of football Richard Montague to take the helm for another four games.
Those fixtures include today’s game plus home fixtures against Middlesbrough and Burnley with Watford away in-between.
That takes us up to Saturday 15th March giving the Swans two weeks off for those not on international duty. It all starts up again against Leeds United away on the 29th.
By then we will be moving into the last five weeks of the season with just seven fixtures to go in April and May.
It’s definitely on top of the Swans to get at least three more wins and a few draws to feel safe.
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