Garry Monk was a happy captain as he celebrated the Swans 1-0 win over Plymouth at Home Park

Monkl's clenched fist at the final whistle on Saturday said much about how badly the Swans wanted the victory that lifted them to 7th place in the Championship table.

For the first time this season he had led a defence to a clean sheet and been part of an away victory that went some way to diminishing the disappointment he felt two weeks earlier when a red card at Charlton and a defeat got the season off to a poor start.

Three points on the road following last week's victory over Nottingham Forest has kick started the Swans season in some style and optimism is now high that they can turn two wins into three on Saturday when Sheffield Wednesday arrive at the Liberty Stadium.

For now though Monk was concentrating on the positives to take from a solid display at Plymouth - the first meeting at this level between the two sides for over 40 years.   Speaking to the Western Mail after the match, Monk said “We knew if we could match them physically then our football would come out on top

“We knew what to expect, but the key to it all was digging in when the going gets tough because, when we get the chance to play football, we will be OK.

“We are fitter than a lot of teams and we can keep those kind of efforts up all day – we know if we match them, battle for battle our quality will come through.

“And that showed because the way we played in the first half we deserved a goal if not a couple more.

“It’s going to be backs against the wall at times in this division and not to expect us to have to dig in and defend away from home is being a bit naive.

“That was the test here, but we did it and we did it well and still managed to play the better football."

Monk was also another to be heaping the praise on Jason Scotland, scorer of the only goal - his first of the season and the Swans captain added

“It’s amazing, you still hear certain things about the step up and certain players not being able to do here what they did in League One, that’s fine if they want to believe that about Jason, but you don’t score 29 goals in League One by being an average player.

“As a defender, it’s great seeing him up there because you know if you get him service he will do the physical thing and then make the ball stick and still give you the end product.”

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls