West Brom playmaker John Swift: Many more to come from me
Debut goal hero John Swift is confident the goals will flow in Albion colours after he got off the mark at Middlesbrough.
The summer recruit from Reading opened his Baggies account with a fine finish in Saturday’s curtain-raiser at Middlesbrough, which earned Steve Bruce’s side a point.
Swift, a key addition and top target of Bruce’s, believes he can play a key role in increasing Albion’s attacking creativity and output in front of goal.
“Goals will come, if I keep making that run in this team I’m going to be on the end of quite a few crosses,” said Swift, 27.
“Personally it’s good to get it out the way and we could’ve nicked it, that would’ve been a good cherry on top of the cake but it’s a great start, it’s a tough place to come.
“It’s a good point away from home after a sloppy start and a good second half.”
The former Chelsea youngster, who operated in an attacking midfield role in Bruce’s 4-2-3-1, made a potentially difficult finish look simple as he swept in a bouncing ball from fellow new recruit Jed Wallace’s cut-back.
Swift is set to make his home league debut against Watford on Monday. He added: “It looks harder than it was, to be fair. When it’s bouncing right in front of you that’s tough.
“But Jed played it so it bounced a couple of yards in front of me so it sat up quite nicely. Jed did the hard bit, he got to the byline and found me on the penalty spot.
“Credit to him for picking me out, I get into the position a lot so hopefully I can do that more.”
Swift is no stranger to making a flying start to the season.
The ex-Royals stalwart, a former England under-21 international, scored seven goals in seven games at the beginning of last term for his previous club, including a hat-trick against QPR.
He finished the campaign with 11 goals, all in the league, in 38 appearances. That return was a career’s best for the attacker, beating a previous of nine in 2016/17, his first season as a Reading regular.
“Did I get seven in seven?” Swift smiled. “Wow. Hopefully I can replicate it and get 10 in 10!
“I’d do anything to get on the end of crosses and stuff like that, but most importantly if the goals lead to wins then that’s the main thing.”
