Freddie Woodman Stevenage

Freddie Woodman | Coping with adversity is key

12th January
First team

Freddie Woodman wants Swansea City to find a way to keep turning out results as they start the second half of the Championship season at Barnsley on Saturday.

With 23 games in the book, the Swans sit second in the Championship table, four points back from leaders Norwich after a strong run over the festive period.

They backed that up by advancing in the FA Cup with victory at Stevenage, and now return to league action in front of the Sky cameras in the late kick-off at Oakwell.

Steve Cooper’s side turned in two fine performances against fellow promotion hopefuls Reading and Watford, but goalkeeper Woodman - who made his fourth penalty save from seven spot-kicks faced in Swansea colours at the weekend - knows the key will be to keep racking up the points even when in adversity.

“The most pleasing thing for us at the moment has been the way we have played,” he said.

“We have been dominating possession, we have been creating chances and we have been on a run where we have not lost for a few games.

“There have been a lot positives from the recent results and performances, hopefully we can build on that and keep churning out the results.

“That’s the key thing. Of course, we want to play as well as we can every game. But you will always have difficult moments or spells in games.

Freddie Woodman

“The big thing is to make sure you can handle those and come out of them with points on the board.”

The win over Watford came after Swansea were forced into a late reshuffle as injury to Joel Latibeaudiere saw Ryan Manning come into the side and Jake Bidwell move to centre-back.

But the Swans were still able to get the job done, underlining Woodman’s point about coping with adversity.

“I think when you see things like that, people have to realise part of the ability to cope with things like that comes from coaching,” he added.

“The gaffer and the staff here are pretty bang on with preparation and making sure everyone is ready to do the job required of them when called upon.

“You have to have all bases covered, and we go into games feeling like that is the case.

“We know Ryan and Jake are top professionals, who will always be ready to go and they showed it. There’s never any doubt about any of the boys when we need them.”