Vitor Matos | The players have come a long way, but the job is not done

Vitor Matos insists his players must take the credit for Swansea City’s upturn in fortunes, but wants them to make sure they round the season off in the right fashion as they prepare to take on in-form Norwich City at Carrow Road.

Victory over Queens Park Rangers at MATRADE Loftus Road in midweek made it 43 points in 28 games for the Swans since Matos was named as head coach at the end of November.

That average of just over 1.5 points per game would work out at 72 points over a full Championship campaign, a tally that would have Swansea challenging for a play-off berth.

Matos knows there is plenty of hard work still ahead, and that continues with a trip to face a Norwich side with the second-best record in the division since the turn of the year, and who can still mathematically force their way into the top six.

“I think I said from day one this squad had a lot of potential, there were a lot of things that we wanted to unlock, and for that you need time, training and consistency,” said Matos.

“It is not possible to have everything built straight away, you have to take it step by step, working through any problems, understanding the priorities while trying to be as competitive as possible against all opposition.

“The players bought into that brilliantly, I think their character and mentality is probably the main reason we are in this position now.

“They are feeling the love to play alongside each other, to play for this club, and they love it here. Then, of course, we want to continue to improve the quality of the game, to be dominant with the ball, to be an offensive team and getting the counter-press right, which is massive for us.

“It’s about a balance because we want to find a way to play with speed, but not to rush moments in the game, and it’s tough to find this balance with how many games there are.

“We are not done yet, and there are still two games to go and our concern firstly has to be on putting in a really good performance on Saturday because Norwich are a very good team, and we are playing very soon after another tough away game.

“We want to show consistency in our behaviours and in our performance, because that is a sign of maturity and that’s what we want on Saturday and for the last game against Charlton.”