Garry Monk spoke of how much the 1-0 victory over Charlton meant to the squad on Wednesday evening … and not least as reward to the fans.
After seeing Steven Fletcher’s 95th minute header end the Hillsborough goal drought, bring our first S6 win of the year and signal great celebrations for players and fans alike, Monk said: “You could see from the celebrations, the feeling from the whole group and everyone celebrating together how much that win means.
“Especially here at Hillsborough, where we have let ourselves down and let the fans down in quite a few of the recent games, particularly with some of the scorelines which have been uncharacteristic from what we built here when we first came in.
“To give the fans a win and send them home happy was something we really needed to do.
“We have had a hard time, a lot it self inflicted and some parts of it unfortunate but these last two games I have been very pleased and you can see that fightback and spirit that we had for the majority of the season up until Christmas.”
Reflecting on the overall display, he said: “It was a deserved win. You’re thinking with a few seconds to go, what more could we have done, the ball just didn’t seem to want to go in.
“After the first 10 minutes, we controlled the whole game and created numerous opportunities and you’re thinking is our luck ever going to change.
“But we kept going, pushed right to the end and got that deserved win.
The manager added that an improvement in workrate had helped bring about the recent upturn in form but that it is only two games and the team now needs to continue this for the rest of the season.
On goalscorer Fletcher, returning last Saturday after a long injury lay-off, Monk said: “You can see the difference he makes when he is on the pitch. We have missed him, there is no doubt about that, but we have not used it as an excuse, we have tried to get on with it.
“He’s been exceptional this season, was very unfortunate to get injured and we’re very pleased to have him back.”