Oli: This is just the start

Oli McBurnie has urged Swansea City to build on their unbeaten start to 2019 after a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Sheffield United.

Graham Potter’s side recorded their third win in four games at the start of the calendar year thanks to McBurnie’s second-half strike, while they also stretched their unbeaten run to five matches in all competitions.

The Swans were on the back foot for most of the first half, but turned things around after the break before seeing out the victory despite a late Blades rally.

And McBurnie believes the manner in which the Swans ground out the three points epitomises the strength of character within the squad.

“It’s so tight in the league, so if you can get some momentum and a few good results, you’ll go straight up the table,” he said.

“It’s been a good start to the year for us, but it is just the start. We need to keep building on that and see where we get to.

“We had to weather the storm in the first half and the gaffer had a few choice words for us at the break, whilst making a few tweaks to the formation.

“It’s down to us, though, and we came out in the second half and played the football we wanted to, which put them on the back foot. We controlled the ball, moved it well and eventually got our goal from it.

“We were hanging on a little for the last 10 minutes, but it was about managing the game and we did it well which just shows the resilience we have in the team.”

Having missed the Swans’ last two games through illness, McBurnie marked his return in style with what was his 11th goal of the season.

The decisive moment came in the 65th minute when the striker slid in to poke home Nathan Dyer’s cross after the winger had played a neat one-two with Mike van der Hoorn.

And the Swans' number nine believes a slight alteration to his style of play in recent weeks has paid dividends with three goals from two starts in the new calendar year.

“Recently, I’ve been trying to get in the box a little bit more and let the rest of the boys create opportunities,” he explained.

“It was a typical Swansea goal with the boys playing excellent football and Nathan putting the ball across for me to get my toe on the end of. Those are always the nice ones.”