It’s one step back, two steps forward for Fulton at Swansea
He endured the nightmare of relegation with Swansea City.
Now, Jay Fulton wants to live the dream of a Premier League return.
After swapping Falkirk for South Wales aged just 19 back in 2014, Fulton was expected to disappear – at least initially – into the Swans’ development system.
Instead, he made a stunning Premier League bow just three months after signing.
He continued to make top-flight appearances in subsequent seasons, racking up 18 in total before Swansea’s relegation to the Championship.
But as painful as the drop was for the club, it has also been the making of Fulton as a first-pick star.
He has continued his terrific form from last season into the current campaign, and with Swansea flying high in the Championship, he is determined to keep showing his worth.
Of course, the 25-year-old comes from good footballing stock.
His grandfather, Norrie, scored the winner for Pollok in the 1981 Junior Cup Final at Hampden.
And his dad, Steve, was likened to Roberto Baggio by Celtic boss, Billy Mcneill, when he was starting out his senior career in Glasgow’s East End in the late 1980s.
The next generation of the Fulton clan is looking to make his own mark with a return to England’s top flight this season.
“Getting back to the Premier League with Swansea would be a dream,” said Fulton. “But you’ve probably got 10 or 12 clubs in the Championship who are thinking like that.
“The manager’s mantra is taking it game by game and just working on ourselves.
“If we can get our own game right we’ve got a chance in any match.
“Steve Cooper came in this summer, but he has continued the work we were doing last season under the previous gaffer, Graham Potter (who moved to Brighton) and pushed us on again. “We’ve only lost once this season – last weekend to Nottingham Forest. But all the games we’ve won – and the match at Derby County, which we drew – were tough. “Through them all, the way we worked in pre-season – having that will to win and never giving up – has shone through.” Fulton personifies the qualities his manager is drilling into his team-mates. He knew he would have to work hard to earn his chance at Swansea.
But that’s just what he did, with loan spells at Oldham Athletic and Wigan building on his formative experiences at Falkirk. Now he has put them all together as a key member of the Swans’ titlechasing side.
“Last season was an important season for me,” said Fulton. “What happened to the club, with relegation and everything that goes with it, was hard to take.
“But it gave quite a lot of the younger boys, who were on the fringes, an opportunity to come in.
“When I came down to Swansea initially, I was only here three months before Garry Monk was giving me my first Premier League start.
“If you’d said to anybody up the road I’d be doing that, I don’t think they’d have believed it.
“But, as a young player, it’s difficult to get your foot in the door.
“The loan spells were good, though, to go out and get the experience, then to come back and be ready.”
Being ready has meant dealing with the £20-million loss of last season’s star striker – and Scotland international – Oli Mcburnie.
But Fulton reckons Swansea are proving they are well-equipped to join Mcburnie in the Premier League next season.
“Oli was a big loss,” he admitted. “But there are good players here and, from pre-season, the manager has been at us – everybody here knows their job, no matter if you’re starting games or coming on from the bench.
“Losing an important player is tough to take. But if you’ve got a unit working together, that is more important.”