Steve Cooper | The schedule is not fair on us, but we'll be ready to go
Steve Cooper believes Swansea City have been dealt a bad hand with the Championship schedule, but insists he and his side will make sure they are ready to fight for more points against Blackburn Rovers tonight (7pm).
Less than 72 hours after starting their previous fixture at Barnsley in South Yorkshire, the Swans are in action again after another long journey, this time to Lancashire to face Rovers at Ewood Park.
It means Swansea have travelled or played on four of the last five days, having arrived back in South Wales in the early hours of Sunday morning following the win at Oakwell.
Head coach Cooper is unimpressed that the schedule has handed the Swans such a task given the long distances involved.
But, with his team second in the table and on a six-match unbeaten run in all competitions, he says there is no doubt his side will have the right attitude and mentality for the task at hand.
"What's important this year is that this is a season for adapting. We're dealing with it for the first time,” he said.
“We've got to go to Blackburn on Tuesday, and we were still in Yorkshire on [Saturday night]. It's not fair.
"You guys who live in south Wales, particularly in Swansea, know how long a journey that is. We've got four days of travel, truth be told.
"We've had really busy periods already, I mentioned there were nine games in 29 days [earlier in the season], that's never been done before.
"I've said all along, player availability is key to giving yourselves the best chance this year, but the players have taken great responsibility for that in terms of their recovery, nutrition, making sure they get the right amount of sleep and looking after themselves.
“The more fresh our boys can be going into the game the better.
"We know it's going to be really tough, a quick turnaround for Tuesday. Is it unfair and unkind? Yeah. Would they do it to some of the other clubs in our league? No chance.
“But we get that treatment, but we'll get on with it."
