IRELAND INTERNATIONAL Ryan Manning had two reasons to celebrate this week.
Having announced that he and his partner were expecting a baby, the Galway native followed up that good news with an influential display, as he scored in Swansea City’s 3-0 win over Hull on Saturday.
The Irishman’s powerful volley opened the scoring and helped the Welsh club move up to 16th in the Championship table.
The 26-year-old, who missed out on an Ireland call-up for the latest squad to face Scotland and Armenia, celebrated by tucking the ball under his shirt in reference to the news that he was set to become a father.
“Everyone was saying to me – the players who’ve had kids – that it could be a really long time before you get a chance to do the celebration,” he told the club website afterwards.
“I think Grimesy squeezed his celebration in at the play-off semi-final.
“I’m pleased to get that out of the way to be honest! I didn’t want to have the pressure of having to get the goal in time.
“Charli is due at the end of March, so I had a while to get it, but I’m happy to get it out of the way.”
Manning added that the much-needed win was well deserved after a couple of previous encouraging performances in which they ultimately failed to come away with three points.
“The last few weeks have been tough in terms of the finishes we’ve had to the games, but I think the performances have been there so I think a result like that was coming.
“I think it was just a matter of time before everything went for us. Sometimes football is like that, where no matter how hard you try some things don’t go your way. Against Hull, they did and we were able to finish this first block of games well.
“I think with the Sheffield United game, we had bags of chances and we didn’t score. Then in the first half here, we hit the bar twice and it could easily make you wonder if it is going to be your day.
“But we kept going and for that first goal to go in, it’s probably taken a bit of pressure of us as a group. Then we get a bit of luck with the second.
“The Championship this season is different to how it’s been in the past. It’s usually more spread out than it is. It’s such a competitive league this year, and the performances have been there but it’s been the cutting edge in both boxes.
“It’s good to be able to go into the international break with that win, and now we can knuckle down and get some important work done and put ourselves up where we feel we should be in the table.”
