Having defeated Blackburn Rovers at the weekend, Swansea head coach Russell Martin would have felt that his side were ready to trend in the right direction for the remainder of the campaign.
However, the Welsh outfit were well beaten by Stoke City on Tuesday evening, conceding three second-half goals as well as having Ryan Bennett sent off.
The defender’s dismissal inevitably had an impact on the rest of the match, but Swansea have now lost six of their last 10 fixtures in the Championship, conceding 15 goals.
While Martin will hope that the club’s hierarchy show some patience with regards to their progression, he ultimately requires another win as soon as possible if he is to have a better chance of riding out the current storm.
On a positive note, Swansea have prevailed in two of their last three home fixtures, while it goes unnoticed that they have the joint-fourth-best defensive record in fixtures on familiar territory.
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson finds himself in a similar position to his counterpart, the experienced boss seemingly being at the point of no return if his team had lost to Reading in midweek.
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Although the Robins were made to work for their 2-1 victory over the Championship strugglers, it earned Pearson some breathing space ahead of the trip to the Swansea.com Stadium.
Antoine Semenyo’s fifth strike of the campaign was the high point, but it was also the first time in six attempts that Bristol City had avoided conceding more than two goals in a game.
Not only does Sunday’s game represent a chance to finally reach the 40-point mark, Pearson will want to finally end the wait to record back-to-back victories in the Championship this season
