Centre-back pair praise cool-headed Kyle Naughton

Swansea City summer recruits Nathan Wood and Harry Darling have praised “cool-headed” Kyle Naughton for helping them settle into life on the pitch at Swansea City.

The pair made their first competitive appearances for the Swans on Saturday as Russell Martin’s side played out a 1-1 draw with newly-promoted Rotherham United.

Darling, who spent last season in League One with MK Dons, and Wood, for whom just eight of his 27 senior appearances have been played in front of fans, have found the Swans 2021-22 players’ player of the year to be a calming influence in helping them adapt and adjust to their new team-mates and, in Wood's case, a completely new style of play.

“Naughts is so good to play with,” said Wood.

“Him, Grimesy [Matt Grimes] and Jay [Fulton], they’ve got such cool heads and when you play with people like that it just calms you down.

“If you need calming down, you can just look to your left or right and you’ve got big players like them.

“Naughts is funny in training and he’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen."

And Darling, who marked his debut with a terrific strike for Swansea's equaliser, echoed those sentiments.

“Having Naughts behind us is great. He’s just a calm head and looks like he’s never going to give the ball away,” added Darling.

“He’s brilliant. He’s been there and done it all in football. He’s had such a good career. Playing with him can only help me and Woody.”