Sheehan backing Galbraith to shine

Alan Sheehan is backing Ethan Galbraith to shine in the Championship after the midfielder's bright start to life at Swansea City.

Galbraith marked his home debut with a fine late goal as Swansea beat League Two Crawley Town in the Carabao Cup first round on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old, a summer signing from League One side Leyton Orient, had also impressed during pre-season and was one of Swansea's better performers in their opening-day Championship defeat by Middlesbrough.

Northern Ireland international Galbraith has played at the base of midfield and in a more advanced role in his brief Swansea career, while he also spent time at right-back during his spell with Orient.

Head coach Sheehan described Galbraith's display against Crawley as "excellent".

"He is a player we are integrating," he added.

"He has good technical ability. We just need to get that level of consistency and he can be a very good player for us."

Galbraith's stoppage-time volley sealed Swansea's first win of the new season, with Ronald and Bobby Wales also finding the target in a 3-1 victory.

After a toothless display at Middlesbrough, the Swans created a host of chances against Crawley and should have won more comfortably.

"It's important to win, no matter what competition it is," added Sheehan.

"Obviously the league is the most important thing. We would have liked a point [at Middlesbrough] – I think it was a 0-0 game.

"But we debriefed it. We wanted to create more chances, attack faster, link up in the wide areas and the central areas and mix up our play better because we were a small bit one-dimensional in the second half.

"I think it was really good response by the players."