POTTER: WE MUST UP OUR EFFORTS
SWANSEA manager Graham Potter believes his side will have to improve on their draw with Forest if they are to take anything from forthcoming trips to Stoke and Middlesbrough.
The Welsh side played out a dull stalemate with Aitor Karanka’s men to get back into the play-off positions ahead of their challenging run.
Forest winger Ben Osborn had a string of clear-cut opportunities to break the deadlock, but had a nightmare in front of goal.
And Yan Dhanda almost capped his full league debut with a goal after half-time, but his shot was blocked away by giant Romanian goalkeeper Costel Pantillimon.
Karanka’s side mounted a late assault, but Swansea survived to earn a point.
“We have had two battling performances where we’ve been really up against it and come away with four points,” said Potter.
“The challenge for us is to improve our overall play, but we keep getting knock backs which doesn’t help with consistency.
“We have 12 points and we know we need to get better heading into two really tough away fixtures.
“In the context we are happy with a point, we didn’t deserve anything more than that.
“It was a battling performance, where we had to overcome adversity during the game. We had patches of play but not enough for a home team.
“We had disruptions in the first half and had to adapt and work out how it was best to go about the game. It was a body blow to lose Bersant and Jay at half-time, but they stuck in it and got a point.”
Nottingham Forest manager Karaoke believes they can build on their point in South Wales.
“We could have scored towards the end of the game, but I felt if we made one mistake they could have scored,” said Karanka. “We could have won this game, but the most important thing was to show team spirit and our hunger after Brentford. We showed without the ball we pressed and caused them problems in possession. We need to keep this consistency and keep this intensity because we are sure to score goals with the quality we have. We missed chances, but this is normal when you are tired.
“Swansea are a very good team who demanded a lot from us, but we will win a lot of games if we play this way.”
Osborn could only skew a shot wide of goal after being set up by Saidy Janko and then moments later he failed to capitalise on a mistake from Jay Fulton to give Erwin Mulder an easy save.
Osborn had a third opportunity to break the deadlock after Jack Robinson’s deflected shot landed at his feet, but Mulder reacted to parry his effort away.
After Dhanda’s shot was palmed to safety by Pantillimon, Osborn was guilty of another glaring miss. The ball arrived at his feet eight yards out with no one near him, but once again he fired wide.
Pantillimon then blocked from Swans sub Joel Asoro, before Gil Dias’ late volley was saved by Mulder.