Rodgers: Swansea can stay up

Brendan Rodgers is confident Swansea City can avoid relegation despite watching his side concede a two-goal lead against Wolves on Saturday.

Danny Graham and Joe Allen had given Swansea a comfortable advantage heading into half-time but despite a lack of support from the Molineux crowd, Mick McCarthy’s charges sealed a point in the final six minutes through goals from Kevin Doyle and Jamie O’Hara.

The 2-2 draw was Swansea’s first away point of the season and despite being unable to hang on for the win, Rodgers maintains he was pleased with the performance.

“Our job is to make sure we put out a team that will defend the culture of Swansea and be competitive at this level,” he said after the match.

“I think we’ve shown so far we’ll be able to do that.”

“If we’d closed the game out we’d be sat here talking about a tremendous team performance.”

“We’ve shown today we’ll be competitive. The job now is to win against Bolton next week and it’ll be a good month for us.”

Rodgers has urged his side to push on from the Molineux draw.

“We need to manage the game better and our job is to make sure the two points don’t cost us at the end of the season,” he said.

“In terms of our standard today, we really dominated and controlled the game, with and without the ball.”

“To lose [the two goals] in the last 10 minutes that was obviously difficult. But, it was our first point away from home and a performance like that was fantastic, really.”

“It was a difficult position for us as we’d never gone away from home and dominated the game and scored two goals. But, we need to learn and learn quickly.”

Shaken Mick McCarthy hopes the comeback draw can be ‘a turning point’ after a ‘difficult day’ full of fans’ fury.

McCarthy was berated in the 68th minute when he replaced wingers Matt Jarvis and Adam Hammill with midfielders Adlene Guedioura and Nenad Milijas.

Yet as cries for his sacking rang out, strikes in the 84th and 86th minute saw Kevin Doyle and Jamie O’Hara turn around a two-goal deficit and end a run of five league defeats.

Speaking after the game, McCarthy made his feelings towards the Molineux crowd clear, stating: “I’m up for a scrap, in fact if anyone is up for one now, I’m happy to accommodate.”

“They (the crowd) can react how they like.”

“I don’t send messages to anybody. The overriding feeling is that the players have got the result for themselves and the club and that’s fabulous, I’m delighted.”

“I ain’t bothered (by the reaction). We’ve played a lot better and got nothing. We needed a bit of brilliance, we needed something, we need something to get us off seven points and that run of (five league) defeats.

“That’s what we got.”

The result ended a run of form that was the worst in 27 years for the club, and McCarthy is hopeful the late fightback will herald a change in fortune for his side.

“Of course it’s a turning point. It has to be a turning point,” he added.

“We had to stop the run of defeats and we’ve done that.”