Sheehan hopes Swansea can 'build bridges' after win

Alan Sheehan also had an interim spell in charge of Swansea last season

Swansea City's interim head coach Alan Sheehan hopes his team can help "build bridges" with an upturn in form after the latest period of turbulence at the club.

Five days after former head coach Luke Williams was sacked following a run of eight defeats in 10 games, the Swans made a flying start under Sheehan on Saturday as they beat play-off contenders Blackburn Rovers 3-0.

While a wretched sequence of results under Williams had raised the prospect of relegation, Swansea also had to contend with fierce criticism from supporters after another bungled January transfer window.

But the mood at the Swansea.com Stadium was transformed during the win over Blackburn, with the Swans fans singing Sheehan's name as they celebrated a first home victory of 2025.

"There are a lot of bridges that have to be built. Rome wasn't built in a day," said Sheehan.

"Today was a day for the fans to show the players some love and vice versa. That's the way it should be. Today was a pleasing performance.

"I was up at four this morning looking at different things and in-game changes, different scenarios. I wanted to make sure everything was right and all the detail was right for the players and, fair play to them, they were excellent. I've earned myself a Pepsi Max tonight, that's about as exciting as it gets for me!"

Having mustered just one win and five goals from their previous 10 matches, Swansea were unrecognisable against Blackburn.

They improved dramatically in physical terms as midfielders Lewis O'Brien and Goncalo Franco overwhelmed their opponents, while their back four – as opposed to the back five of the latter stages of Williams' tenure – defended resolutely and their attacking players were more clinical in front of goal.

The transformation was all the more remarkable as Sheehan only took the reins on Tuesday.

"We asked them a lot of questions and we've all come under a lot of scrutiny," the Irishman added.

"In the world we live in people can say whatever they want about you. Sometimes the only way you can respond is on a Saturday.

"I'm not going to be a referee between certain things in this football club. My job is to get the team ready for this.

"We talked about physicality. This is the Championship. You can be wonderful and then concede set-pieces etc but you've got to find different ways to win games. We're playing a top-six team and with what we have we thought this was the game-plan and the lads carried it out well."

Swansea's next match is at Preston North End on Tuesday, 4 March. Asked if he expects to remain in charge for the game at Deepdale, Sheehan said: "I've no idea. The club was in a difficult position and I was asked to step up, so that's my duty and I have to do that.

"All concentration today was going into just not letting the people working at the football club and the fans getting into a dangerous position.

"Let's see what happens. There's a lot of stuff happening at the football club, and if we concentrate on me, on any point, I don't really like that. Let's concentrate on giving our positive energy to the players and let all that other stuff take care of itself."