Russell Martin backs Congreve for bright future after deserved full debut

Russell Martin felt Cameron Congreve thoroughly deserved to make his full Swansea City debut at Nottingham Forest, and was pleased with what he saw from the young midfielder on a tough afternoon.

Congreve, 18, had made three previous appearances from the Swans, all from the bench, before being handed a starting role at the City Ground.

The playmaker showed some neat touches and was not afraid to try his luck from distance before being withdrawn with the visitors chasing the game in the second half.

But Martin was happy with what he saw from the teenager playing in a red-hot atmosphere against a side chasing promotion.

“Cameron deserved to play, he has trained fantastically well with us over the last few months,” he said.

“We have worked with him for a while now, and we had Olivier Ntcham and Jamie Paterson not quite fit enough to start.

“We could have played some guys who we know more about, but we wanted to learn more about Cameron and I thought he was great.

“He was really good, he showed some good touches and some real maturity.

“He has confidence and he is a great player on the ball and he can make things happen because he is a good technician and we love his mentality.

“He is one we are excited about and someone we want to develop with.”