Jamie Paterson looking to continue goalscoring purple patch

Jamie Paterson hopes he can continue his hot run of goalscoring form over the festive period after his superb brace gave Swansea City a 2-1 victory over Preston North End.

The midfielder took his tally to four goals in seven games, opening the scoring on the hour mark with a brilliant first-time finish from a Matt Grimes pass.

He went on to grab the winner in the fifth of seven minutes of stoppage time – after Liam Millar had levelled for Preston – firing home left-footed from a Liam Cullen pass.

It gave the Swans a valuable three points, and Paterson felt it was deserved reward for their perseverance.

“It had been playing on my mind that I had not scored, but I know previously in my career that when I do get a goal I can go on a bit of a purple patch,” he said.

“I am hoping I can carry this on and help us climb the table. It’s good to get the goals and it’s a great feeling to get a 94th minute winner, you could see everyone was happy and we deserved it for sticking together.

“We have struggled at home, and pressure can build in that situation. We have had good performances but not got the result and that’s football sometimes.

“It was a tricky game but we stuck together and got the result.

“We needed that. We came into this thinking we deserved more from the game against Middlesbrough, we played well then.

“This was a bit more scrappy, they came here to try and make the game slow and the game did not really get going.

“But we showed the character to stay in the game and it was great to be able to score that goal at the end.

“That was great for the fans, for the players, for everyone.”

And Paterson also praised the togetherness shown by the coaching staff, squad and fans as they celebrated a third home win of the season.

“I say it all the time but it is a great group, it is a young group, so we need the fans as much as possible to get behind us,” he said.

“I know that is not easy at times when results are not what we want it to be, and we all want to be higher in the league.

“They helped us on towards the end and I think everyone was happy with the result.”