Swansea City boss Vitor Matos sends clear relegation message ahead of crucial Portsmouth showdown
Pompey make the trip to early-season relegation rivals Swansea City on Tuesday evening.
Vitor Matos has made it clear his new Swansea City side have to keep improving if they want to move away from any relegation danger this season.
And the Swans boss has called for supporters to make the Swansea.com Stadium a place to be feared, with another crucial showdown at the bottom of the table awaiting against Pompey on Tuesday.
The Welsh outfit picked up their first victory under their Portuguese head coach over the weekend, claiming a 2-0 triumph over Oxford United to put some breathing room between themselves and the bottom three.
Swansea now sit three points above John Mousinho’s men ahead of Tuesday’s hugely important contest at the foot of the Championship, with the maximum points moving them into 20th position.
In fact, it represented Swansea’s second win in 10 games, with that poor run spelling the end of Alan Sheehan’s short tenure in charge last month.
And refreshed under Matos, the new head coach has challenged his squad to move clear of any relegation danger, starting with the midweek contest against Pompey.
Swansea City boss’ challenge ahead of Pompey
He told the club’s official website: ‘I think it was important for us to have this feeling, to break the cycle and to understand that doing the right steps in the right direction will allow us to have more nights like this. But we believe and that’s what we need to build from.
‘There’s a lot to come still, a lot of games, a lot of improvement that we need to find the consistency that we want. It’s a really important win.
‘The desire, the mentality, the togetherness, it is something that we needed to build from and at the same time the willingness to control the game.
‘The want to have the ball to press high, to counter press, to have a good positional game, to start off with different types of solutions especially in the final third. Different ways to find the goal, that’s what we wanted but it was a good game.
‘We need to find consistency especially in the second half when we are getting tired and more emotional.
‘We need to know how to control these moments but we get the three points, a clean sheet and we move on.’
Swansea City boss’ fires message to supporters
Saturday’s triumph over Oxford United represented the Swans’ third league victory of the season on home soil.
And with another tough battle awaiting against early relegation rivals Pompey, Matos has called for supporters to be 12th man at the Swansea.com Stadium.
He added: ‘We need to look at the moment and we can only get out of the moment with everyone.
‘I think using the stadium as a place where we will feel we have 12 on the pitch will be massive for us. That needs to keep going and we take a step in that direction.
‘Recovery will be massive because it’s only two days between the games. It’s important that we use the good things of today, especially the feeling, to build for that game (against Pompey).
‘Different game, different opponent but we need to find the right solution to win.’
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