Sport

Michael Obafemi has been described as 'brilliant' by his manager Russell Martin after his winner for Swansea on Saturday

IRELAND'S MICHAEL OBAFEMI has been described as 'brilliant' by his manager Russell Martin after the Irish forward scored the winning goal for Swanswa against West Brom this Saturday.

Obafemi (22) had fallen out of the pecking order at Swansea and had been linked with a move away from the club in the last transfer window.

Michael Obafemi’s goal for Republic of Ireland as they beat Armenia 3-2 on Tuesday night.#Swans 🦢 #Ireland 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/g3r9DD1yY1

— Swans Basis (@swansbasis) September 28, 2022

Back in September, after the close of the transfer window, Russell Martin left the striker out of the QPR game

Explaining his omission Russel said: "So Michael just wasn't in the right frame of mind."

"We had a chat about it, we spoke what we thought would be best for the group and what would be best for him.

"We decided together that it would be best for him to have the weekend off, come in on Monday.

"We'll have a conversation and take it from there. Where he's at, we'll find out on Monday.

Fast forward to the start of October, Obafemi scored his second ever Ireland goal against Armenia in the Nations League and bagged the winner against West Brom in the weekend just gone. Martin now believes that consistency will be Obafemi's biggest ally going forward.

“I spoke to Michael just before he came on," Martin said.

“I said, ‘It's written for you if you really want it, the fans are singing for you, you've had a great week with Ireland, this is the moment, this is the time’.

“The fans certainly helped that. It would have done Michael the world of good. It's just about consistency, for everyone.

“With Michael, it's just consistent behaviour, it's really that simple. When he finds a level of consistency like he did in the second half of last season, he'll be incredible.

“I hope the week he's had with Ireland and today will be the catalyst for him to get back to that regularly. If he does, he's brilliant.”

Adding on his winner Obafemi said: “I was happy that I got the goal, and now I just want to continue my form. Obviously, because of what’s happened in the past, maybe it was a bigger goal. But I’m a Swansea player and I’m happy to be here and I just want to make the fans happy and all my team-mates happy as well.

“It was a good feeling to score, and the fans erupted, I was just so happy. Our fans are brilliant, they always support us in numbers home and away. They were singing my name, which was nice, I’ve always loved the fans and it’s only onwards and upwards from here.”