Roberto Martinez was playing down talk by Marcos Painter that the Swans had targetted the play offs

The Swans left back last week stated that the side's target was to break into the play offs at the end of the season.   He said that a Top 6 finish was what they were looking at and that would give them a place in the end of season lottery that is the play offs - the most valuable series of games in world football.   It was an achievement gained by Bristol City last season and one that has been mentioned in other quarters as within the Swans reach.

Saturday's 1-0 win at Plymouth lifted the Swans into 7th place just three games into the season and a victory next Saturday over Sheffield Wednesday will lift them into the Top 6 - their highest position for more than 25 years.

But if the target behind closed doors is a play off place, it is not something that the astute Martinez is admitting to publically.   He was keen to state that the Swans have a hard challenge ahead of him and with less than 10% of the season gone there is no way he is going to get carried away with talk of Premiership pushes.

Speaking to the Evening Post, the Swans manager said ''I think you must have caught Marcos on a high when he spoke about the play-offs

''What's important for us is that we keep improving and keep increasing the competition in our squad.

''That competition is our strength and I think you can see that when you look at the players who weren't involved against Plymouth.

''But we need to take things step by step. We need to make sure we are competitive in every single game and then see where we are.

''To make any predictions in August would be a bit too adventurous. We would probably need a magic ball.

''You can understand why pundits have been tipping us for relegation,'' the Swansea manager added.

''We are probably working with one of the lowest budgets in the division, we are a squad with no experience whatsoever and we have a very young manager.

''I think you have all the ingredients there to be one of the favourites to be relegated, but our challenge is to be better than that.''

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