Jay Fulton: Swansea City must build from the back

Jay Fulton reckons Swansea City must build from the back as they bid to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone.

The Swans are in the bottom three for Christmas after back-to-back losses at West Brom and Middlesbrough.

The two away-day defeats have left Bob Bradley's men licking their wounds ahead of crunch home fixtures with West Ham on Boxing Day and Bournemouth on New Year's Eve.

The Swans were particularly frustrated because they played some good football in patches against Albion and Boro only to be undone by defensive frailties.    

And Fulton reckons Bradley's side must chalk up a few more clean sheets if they are to turn things around.

"We know where we need to be better," the midfielder said.

"We have conceded too many goals recently and we need to be better as unit defensively. We need to be a team who are able to win games 1-0.

"When you look at some of the performances we have had - away at Everton and at home to Crystal Palace and then Sunderland, there was promise there.

"We have played some good football, but we know we must be better defensively."

The Swans had taken seven points from four games before last week's travelling troubles, a run which briefly lifted them out of the bottom three.

The challenge now is to put recent disappointments behind them by kicking off another sequence of good results.

"We have got to keep being positive," Fulton added.

"We played well in the first half at West Brom only to concede those three quick goals at the start of the second half. That was a disappointment because we had been right in the game.

"At Middlesbrough we started well again. The home crowd were getting on their backs a bit but we ended up losing two goals by half-time.

"When we are on top like we were early on, we have to score, we have to give ourselves a platform. Then we need to defend better."