Swansea City striker Sam Surridge has said his first goal at the Liberty Stadium 'has been a long time coming' after netting the third in his side's 3-1 win over Middlesbrough in the Championship.
Surridge, who's on-loan at Swansea from Bournemouth for the season, now has four goals in 18 Championship appearances.
Two of them have come in Swansea's last three games and his one against Middlesbrough at the weekend was his first in-front of the Liberty Stadium crowd, and sealed his side's 3-1 win over Boro - Swans' first win in six.
Speaking to the Swansea City official club website, Surridge said:
“I’m delighted to get my first league goal at the Liberty,” said Surridge. “I think it’s been a long time coming, but I’ve been working hard every week to try and get on the score-sheet here at home - hopefully there are many more to come.
“I have been working hard. The last couple of games have gone well for myself, and the goal is reward for the hard work I have put in."
The 21-year-old has started the last four games up-front for Swansea alongside Andre Ayew, having come off the bench for his last six Swans outings prior.
“I’m always hungry for goals even when I haven’t scored in a couple of games," explained Surridge. "Now I just have to keep this run going and it’s great that both myself and Andre are helping the team with him scoring too.”
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Steve Cooper's side have had a massively mixed season in the Championship - starting so well and falling right off the boil, before the weekend Swansea had only taken 15 points from their last 15 league games.
The win against Boro takes them up a place to 10th - now only a point off Fulham in 6th who lost away at now 4th-place Brentford over the weekend.
The verdict
Surridge like Swansea has been inconsistent this season, but now that he's nailing down a starting spot in Cooper's team he seems to have a lot more confidence, and is scoring more goals in-turn.
Bournemouth and Eddie Howe rate the striker very highly and Swans' fans expected big things from the 21-year-old this season. Though he's not had the return so far that he would've hoped for, he remains a key player to Swansea and one who'll be vital in them finishing in the top-six this season.