Swansea’s interim boss Alan Sheehan hailed a “wonderful win” after his side conjured up the only goal in a 1-0 win over Derby.
Eom Ji-sung’s goal pushed the Swans up to 15th in the table, seven points clear of arch-rivals Cardiff in the third relegation place, while defeat for John Eustace’s side ended their recent run of four wins on the trot.
“It wasn’t a wonderful game, but it was a wonderful win,” said Sheehan.
“I thought we dealt with their threats but we’d have liked to cause them more problems when we had the ball. Huge credit to John Eustace, he has found a way to win games and we had to try to match their physicality.
“Some of the defensive displays were outstanding, even though the game itself wasn’t very pleasing on the eye.
“I tried to explain the magnitude of this game in the week and I didn’t want to downplay it. Derby had won four games in a row against teams who are up in the top half of the table, so it was always going to be difficult.
“I said it would be a dogfight. Against a big physical team, we had to be more physical and at times that killed our fluidity.
“But it’s a fine balance to go and win a game against a team who are down there fighting and have a formula to win games at the moment.
“At times in the first half we forced things, we went from back to front too quickly when the spaces were somewhere else. We found it hard to create tempo in the game because when you defend long throw after long throw, it’s difficult.
“We got into good areas at times but our final ball let us down. Even so, it was a wonderful defensive display, a win in the Championship and we created the one bit of quality in the whole game for the goal. “
Derby have to welcome table-topping Burnley to Pride Park on Tuesday night and Eustace is very much looking forward to taking them on.
Even though his side are only out of the bottom three on goal difference – tied on 41 points with Cardiff – he believes they can escape a quickfire return to League One.
“We didn’t create many chances but neither did they – it was a tight game,” said Eustace. “I’m not really worried about what other teams do, I’m just worried about ourselves.
“We’re just concentrating on picking up as many points as we can and seeing where it takes us. I hope the effort we are showing is going to be enough to keep us up.
“All I ask is for us to be competitive and work hard. We had a difficult game on Wednesday, a long travel down to Swansea and the effort the boys put in was outstanding.
“It is a mad few weeks coming up but that’s the Championship. That’s why all we can do is concentrate on what we can do.
“We’ve got a huge game against Burnley coming up on Tuesday and we’ll look forward to that. They are an excellent team with a good manager (Scott Parker) and a huge budget – that’s why they are top of the league.”
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