Jay Fulton is hoping a change of manager will lead to a revival in his opportunities at Swansea City this season.
The Swans midfielder played in the club’s 2-1 friendly defeat to Spanish club Eibar on Tuesday night in Austria.
It was the 24-year-old Scot’s latest pre-season action as he bids to convince new manager Graham Potter he can be a first team regular – a status he failed to achieve under both Paul Clement and Carlos Carvalhal.
Fulton spent the second half of last season on loan at Wigan and helped the Latics to the League One title – as well as a memorable FA Cup win over Manchester City – but was frustrated not to get more regular football in Wigan colours.
“It’s good to be back,” Fulton said. “The loan spell with Wigan wasn’t quite what I thought it would be because I wanted to play more games.
“It was still a good experience and I am grateful to Wigan for giving me that chance, but as soon the loan ended I was thinking about this season.
“I got myself fit in the summer and hopefully I can now play a part here at Swansea. I am hoping it will be a big season for me.
“We have spent a lot of time on the training ground doing football – we are getting all our running through football,” Fulton explained.
“I think you could see against Eibar that we were moving better and passing a bit better, so hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.
“We want to play possession football. You are going to make mistakes and put yourselves under pressure when you do that, but you have to be confident.
“You have to keep taking the ball if you make a mistake. That’s what the gaffer has stressed – don’t be afraid to make a mistake.”
The Swans were beaten in penalty shootouts after drawing 60-minute games with Genoa and FC Magdeburg last weekend, but the Eibar loss was the first in normal time during this pre-season campaign.
The Spaniards scored either side of half-time before Jordi Amat pulled one back for the Swans, who play their final warm-up game of the summer against SC Freiburg on Friday.
“I think in spells we played well against Eibar,” Fulton added.
“At the end of the day pre-season is about getting minutes, getting through injury-free and trying to get the chemistry right in the team.
“We are working with the gaffer’s ideas. Obviously you want to win every game you play and we were disappointed with the goals, but I felt there were positives.”
Potter was without defender Federico Fernandez, who has a thigh injury but has been linked with a move away from the club, as well as the Ayew brothers, Andre and Jordan, who are also expected to join Lukasz Fabianski and Kyle Bartley in moving on.
Potter said: “We are making progress, we are getting to know each other, getting more information and you need these bigger tests.
“It was really useful, the boys have been great all week and the group is getting closer.
“The goals we conceded weren’t so good, both were ones we can probably do better with but overall we defended quite well against some good players, clearly they are probably a bit ahead of us in terms of quality on the pitch but the attitude and application of the boys was good.
“We caused them problems, not as many as we would like and that is where we would like to improve. We got in the final third a few times and lacked that bit of quality and understanding of what we are trying to do.
“But we will move forward, try and assess the game and get better.”
Swansea City: Kristoffer Nordfeldt (Erwin Mulder ht), Connor Roberts, Jordi Amat (capt), Mike van der Hoorn, Matt Grimes, Jay Fulton, Tom Carroll, Wayne Routledge (Dan James 79), Yan Dhanda (Adnan Maric 65), Oli McBurnie (Joe Rodon 56), Jefferson Montero (Nathan Dyer 56).
Subs: Steve Benda, Kyle Naughton, Cian Harries, Ryan Blair, Aaron Lewis.
SD Eibar: Yoel, Pere Milla, Ivan Ramis (capt, Jose Antonio Martinez), Pape Diop, Sergi Enrich (Marc Cardona 68, Paulo Oliveira, Jose Angel Valdes, Pedro Leon, Nano, Unai Elgezabal, Alain Ribeiro.
Subs: Asier Resgo, Ruben Pena, Pablo Hervias.