It was Sir Alex Ferguson who said that ''some believe the greatest courage in football is the courage to win the ball. The other courage, and it's a moral courage, is the courage to keep the ball''.
The point he was making was that it takes great courage from a player to take responsibility and get on the ball and pass it, rather than the physical courage of winning the ball and launching it forward.
That's why our latest ProZone stats make such good reading. We made a total of 520 passes at Blackpool with a completion rate of 84 per cent, which puts us right up there with the likes of Arsenal in the Premiership.
And to put things into perspective, the average number of passes in the Championship is around 250 with a 70 per cent completion rate.
Not only are we top of the technical charts in the Championship for the likes of the number of passes, completion rate and passes forward etc, it also confirms that our fitness levels are right up there as well.
Because we play with such a high intensity, our levels of fitness must be extremely high. And as we reach the halfway point of the season, the stats confirm steady progress from August where we averaged around 350 passes to over 500 in December.
So, full credit goes to the players who have worked so hard in the first half of the campaign. Now they are ready to step it up even more for the second half of the season and swap those draws for wins.
It was also nice to leave Blackpool with no fresh injury worries after a cruel run of late.
Mark Gower did miss the trip to the seaside, but it was just a case of man 'flu which laid him really low the day we left for the long trip. He should be fit and well for today's game.
Andrea Orlandi is also pushing for a return after his ankle injury. He has now stepped up his training programme to a high intensity level after a 60-minute run out for the reserves recently.
Dorus de Vries finally threw his mask away at Blackpool, which was quite scary; while Marcos Painter and Ferrie Bodde are continuing to make good progress following their cruciate ligament operations.
Finally, I'm sure you would all like to join me in wishing loan signing Stephen O'Halloran a speedy recovery from his own cruciate ligament injury picked up in our last home game against Sheffield United.
The left-back has now returned to Aston Villa where he will await his operation. Unfortunately, his surgeon, the world renowned Dr Richard Steadman, suffered a shoulder injury skiing recently and Stephen will have to wait another couple of weeks before going under the knife.
Anyway, best wishes Stephen from everyone at Swansea City.
