Luke Williams ready to move on from West Brom 'noise' as Swansea City boss admits fault
Luke Williams hopes Joe Allen's late equaliser against West Bromwich Albion will aid Swansea City's efforts to move on from the 'noise' around his position.
The midfielder came off the bench to head home deep into stoppage time to salvage a point for his side, after Tom Fellows had initially given the visitors a second-half lead, with the goal ensuring the Swans ended a difficult week on something of a high.
Much of the pre-match build-up had surrounded Williams and speculation linking him with the vacancy at the Hawthorns, links that chairman Andy Coleman branded as unhelpful in his matchday programme notes.
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The Swans boss was criticised by some supporters for his apparent reluctance to publicly shut down the rumours, which he finally did when facing the press on Friday afternoon.
The recent heavy defeat to Portsmouth on New Year's Day has only compounded what's felt a tricky few days for Williams, who now hopes a line can now be drawn under the saga.
“It’s a situation that I didn’t help," he said after the game. "I created a lot of the noise without meaning to.
“There’s been no contact from West Brom to me or my agent or the football club. There’s been no contact at all.
“In fact, my agent has been quite unwell and been in bed for most of the Christmas period, then he phoned me up and said ‘What have you done? What’s going on?’
“I’m pleased that’s behind us. The players were excellent today.”
Swansea arguably rode their luck at times, but Williams insist they were good value for a share of the spoils.
“I think we deserved a draw," he said. "I don’t think there was a huge amount in the game either way. Both teams looked very tired but I think we were value for a point.
“Liam has played a lot of minutes and he was starting to look tired, the pitch is heavy, and he’d just started to lose his energy, and Joey Allen is a special player.
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“Some players are a full-back or a winger or a midfielder, and some are just footballers. Joe Allen is just a footballer. He knows how to handle himself in all different scenarios. He can understand things at a very high level.”
Williams says he hopes the manner in which his side rescued a point today will help to generate some momentum heading into the second half of the season, although the Swans turn their attention to the FA Cup next week with a trip to Premier League Southampton lying in wait.
"We had two really special performances here that we'd almost forgotten about because of a really heavy defeat and then this stuff and the speculation that was handled poorly by myself.
"That's taken our memory away from those two performances and I now hope that we can reflect back with this bit of a break and think 'we've done well in that period of time' and look forward to the rest of the season now."
