Andy Fisher | Clean sheets building confidence
Swansea City goalkeeper Andy Fisher feels he is growing in confidence all the time after keeping a third clean sheet in four games against Wigan Athletic on Monday.
A first-half brace for Joel Piroe settled the game, with Fisher preserving the shutout with a brilliant late save to deny Thelo Aasgaard, which had the Jack Army singing his name.
It was another good outing for the shot-stopper, backing up his man-of-the-match performance against Coventry City on Good Friday.
And this run of form - on a team and individual level - has boosted the keeper’s confidence ahead of the final five games of the season.
“We scored two really good goals and to get a clean sheet made it even better,” he said.
“The clean sheets give me massive confidence. It’s no secret that I’ve had a tough season, I got back in the team because of Steve’s [Benda] injury, and it was tough for a while.
“I was trying too hard to prove myself so I was overthinking games and then mistakes started coming.
“But the lads and the coaching staff have stuck with me and hopefully things are turning now. The three clean sheets are doing us the world of good. Hopefully, I can show what I can do now from now on.
“The fans singing my name was massive. Like I said, I’ve had a tough season so for them to stick with me shows the kind of fans they are. They’ve given me a lot of confidence in these games.”
While the stop from Aasgaard was the pick of his saves, he also had another good afternoon with the ball at his feet. A pass into the feet of Jamie Paterson which left the forward one-on-one with the last defender a particular standout.
“I saw him [Aasgaard] cut in, and I thought the only place he could really put it was to whip it across me so I’ve sort of read him early, got across and made the save,” he explained.
“The way they set up, that ball [direct to Paterson] was on. I tried it in the first half but it didn’t quite come off but the one in the second half did. I saw Pato was one on one and they had a high line so I stuck the ball behind him and he got on the end of it.
“I thought we controlled the game well. We managed it in terms of their press and our decisions were good as to when to go long and when to play short.”
Fisher was born and raised in Wigan and was particularly pleased to have put in a good performance in front of the large group of his friends and family who had made the trip to the DW Stadium on Monday afternoon.
“I think I had about 20 people here watching me,” he added.
“They were all fighting for the tickets so I’m pleased to have had a good performance and a clean sheet in front of them.”
