By Gareth Vincent
South Wales Evening Post

Roberto Martinez is urging his Swansea City players to carry on making history after they announced themselves as a Championship club.

Swansea's morale was dented on their long-awaited return to the second tier by an opening-day defeat at Charlton Athletic.

But they bounced back in spectacular fashion by sweeping aside Nottingham Forest in their first home game at this level in 24 years.

Not only did they chalk up a first Championship victory, they did so by playing some of the best football of the Martinez era.

"Last Saturday was a great day for us whichever angle you look at it from," the Swansea manager declared.

"What we need to do is create more days like that.

"We are creating history at the Liberty Stadium every time we perform like we did against Nottingham Forest.

"In a lot of ways it was like the Leeds game last season. The fans were fantastic and the players showed that they have the right quality and mentality to succeed."

Prior to the start of the season, Swansea were put in the long-hard-season category by most of the national media despite their exploits in League One last term.

The Charlton defeat only strengthened the general opinion of those on the outside - that Swansea are in for a difficult year.

But Martinez believes the manner of the Forest triumph may have forced some of the pundits to reconsider.

"We must take one step at a time," he added, "but we have always said we want to compete at this level and, if we keep performing like that, we'll win more than we lose.

"Maybe some people on the outside will start to see us as a different force now.

"Everyone looks at the newly-promoted teams and wonders how they are going to adapt.

"There are always question marks, so when you get a convincing win it helps.

"It's great if people are changing their minds a little bit, especially for our fans.

"But what pleases me most is that we were able to perform as we did in our first home game at this level for so long.

"It shows the progress we have made and it shows how much further we want to go."

Swansea's next chance to impress comes at Plymouth next Saturday - when Martinez should have a fully-fit squad available apart from broken-rib victim Fede Bessone.

Garry Monk was left in a daze during the Forest game after a clash of heads with Robert Earnshaw, while Tom Butler limped off with an ankle complaint.

But both players are set to feature at Home Park.