Russell Martin | We must play with intensity to round off this period with a result

Russell Martin believes if Swansea City can match the intensity and performance levels from recent games they have every chance of heading into the World Cup break on the back of a positive result against Huddersfield Town this afternoon (3pm).

The Swans suffered late disappointment at Birmingham City on Tuesday evening when Troy Deeney capitalised from close range in the 88th minute to deny them three points, while the Terriers fought hard for an impressive win away at high-flying Queens Park Rangers.

Martin admitted that the fortunes of both teams in midweek makes the task harder for his side, but he has challenged the team to leave everything on the pitch ahead of the World Cup break.

“Huddersfield will be buoyant and feeling really confident after a really good win during the week,” said Martin, whose side will end a hectic run of 11 games in 42 days with 24 points accumulated during that period if they can claim victory at the John Smith's Stadium. 

“They defended brilliantly and they’re working really hard for each other and throwing their bodies on the line.

“They went in front and really fought hard to keep the lead. I’m sure their fans will be enthused by the performance and result, the manager and players will, so it makes it tougher for us to go there.

“But we have to focus on ourselves, going there and being the team we want to be.”

The Swans currently sit eighth in the Championship – one point outside the play off places – having picked up 21 points in their past 11 outings, and are aiming to go into the break on the back of another positive performance and result.

“It’s been a great run for us and it takes some doing because the schedule has been relentless,” he said.

“I think every manager in the league will be saying they want to finish this period off and go into the long break with some positivity and a good performance.

“Of course we want a good performance, and hopefully if we do that the result will reflect the performance. If we continue to perform how we have, we’ll be happy.

“If we can match the level of intensity we’ve shown in this run, we’ll be more than happy and a positive result would put us in a nice position in the league table ahead of the break.

“We need to make sure the players know what to expect, but if we keep performing the way we are, we believe we can cause them problems.”