Sheehan took charge of his third game as Swansea’s caretaker boss on Saturday afternoon and was able to celebrate the second win of his reign as Ji-sung Eom’s first-half strike secured a 1-0 home victory at the Swansea.com Stadium.
The result means Swansea have moved to within six points of Boro in the table, even though their failings earlier in the campaign resulted in the dismissal of former boss Luke Williams.
Whereas the Swans have been operating to a tight budget, Boro boast one of the biggest budgets in the Championship and have spent extensively during Michael Carrick’s reign. As a result, Sheehan was wary of lining up against them prior to his side’s deserved success.
“You can see they are a team where a lot of investment has gone into that team,” said Swansea’s stand-in boss. “There has been a lot of big money spent on individuals.
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“You can understand why the preparation for these games has got to be right on point. This is the type of game where, if you’re not right on point, you can lose two or three nil. It’s important to appreciate the player’s efforts – I’m proud of them.”
Swansea’s game plan at the weekend was to press aggressively high up the pitch, denying Boro’s players time or space in possession.
The ploy worked a treat, with Boro looking badly out-of-sorts in the first half, in particular, as they failed to match Swansea’s collective intensity.
Michael Carrick’s side improved slightly in the second half, but still failed to seriously threaten the Swansea goal as they crashed to their ninth away defeat of the campaign.
“We wanted to compress the space and be aggressive in the right areas,” said Sheehan. “If you’re passive against this team, you will get hurt.
“I’ve watched three or four of their games this week, and you will get hurt if you do that. When you don’t protect certain areas, the spaces become very big, and they look a very good team.
“They have done a lot this season, so I’m very proud of the players. The first 25 minutes of the second half were a bit more back and forth and a bit more frantic, but that can happen when you try and attack as aggressively as we do. They left everything out there on the pitch for us.”
