Premier League: Jonjo Shelvey praises Swansea's character after scoreless draw at Sunderland
Sunday 28 September 2014 21:37, UK
Swansea midfielder Jonjo Shelvey praised his team-mates’ strength of character following the Welsh side’s hard-fought 0-0 draw against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
Garry Monk’s men were forced to dig deep after Spanish defender Angel Rangel was sent off the second half but held on to secure a valuable point and their third clean sheet in six games.
Swansea were looking to bounce back after consecutive Premier League defeats by Chelsea and Southampton and Shelvey was delighted with the determination his team-mates displayed.
“After two straight losses in the Premier League it was important for us to get back and luckily we got the point,” he said.
“Monk talked before the game about showing some character and I thought we did that in abundance in the second half.
“I would have hated to have been a fan watching that game. It wasn’t a very good game to play in.
"There was a lot of ball in the air but the main thing is we’ve come away from home and nicked ourselves a point.”
The draw with Sunderland leaves Swansea sitting fourth in the Premier League with ten points.
The Swans ran out impressive 3-0 winners Everton on Tuesday in the Capital One Cup and a confident Shelvey said he expects the team to continue their good run of form.
“There’s a good atmosphere in the team at the minute,” he said. “We’re all playing well. When you look at the table it is obviously nice to be at the top end of it.
“I think we deserve to be there. Every team we’ve played against, I think we’ve been deserving of something from the game, probably bar Chelsea in the second half.
“But apart from that I feel we deserve to be up towards the top of the table.
“I think on Tuesday night we performed really well against Everton and got a point today and we’ll just look to get three points next weekend against Newcastle.”
