Alan Curtis has revealed how he told Swansea City’s players they owed Garry Monk victory before the club took a key stride towards safety amid emotional scenes at St James’ Park.
And he has spoken of the outpouring of relief among players and staff when his message to back up words of support for Monk with points was heeded with such a significant win in the north east of England.
Curtis echoed rookie boss Monk by claiming the late 2-1 win at Newcastle has not yet made sure of Swansea’s survival, their position six points above the drop zone with three games remaining suggests it is a matter of time before it is.
Indeed, thanks to the vastly superior goal difference they boast, a win over Aston Villa this weekend and failure for either Norwich or Sunderland to win would mean the club retains its Premier League status for next season.
But the Liberty legend made no apologies for the scenes of celebration having spelt out what it meant to the players before the game, delivering an impromptu speech during the warm-up.
It evoked memories of Curtis’ inspirational words before key games such as Rochdale in Hull when the Swans survived the threat of relegation from the Football League in 2003.
But, while his words then were about how the team owed a city the points, here it was about repaying Monk for his work since taking over from Michael Laudrup at the start of February.
While Swansea’s performances, by and large, have impressed under Monk, his impact was being undermined by a failure to get the results to reflect his endeavours, keeping the threat of relegation looming.
And Curtis revealed: “There wasn’t any history of the club this time. I’m not sure if Monks knows about it, but I felt I needed to say something.
“The players have all come out and spoken highly of Garry; they’ve been supportive and every time you pick up the paper it’s been about how well he’s done.
“But I don’t think they really know how hard he’s worked, how much he’s put in. They finish training and go home, but he’s still there giving it everything he’s got.
“He’s first in and last out and has put so much effort and commitment into these last couple of months. It was about time we started to give him something substantial to show for it.”
At a key time too. Swansea would still have had their destiny in their own hands had Wilfried Bony’s brace not brought Monk his third win in charge, but results elsewhere and the fast approaching end of the season would have piled the pressure on.
“I always felt it was going to come for us, but when was it going to come?,” added the first-team coach.
“We kept saying every week we were playing well, we would get the wins and players were responding to him, saying how much the training has improved, what a good coach he’s been, what a good manager and a different atmosphere now.
“But we had to show something. Eventhough I thought we have played well, we had to do better.
“The good teams win when they play well and if they play badly still pick up points.
“We needed to turn performances and efforts into points.”