The Swans boss is hoping to deliver what would be a historic result when the Premier League giants come to town on Wednesday
Swansea City manager Alan Sheehan (Image: Getty Images)
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Alan Sheehan says experience of previous meetings within his squad is helping to drive his bid to inflict an historic Carabao Cup upset over Manchester City.
Swansea City welcome the Premier League giants in the fourth round of the competition, having already claimed the scalp of top- flight side Nottingham Forest.
Toppling Pep Guardiola's men is likely to be a much sterner assignment for Swansea, who returned to winning ways in the Championship with a 2-1 victory over struggling Norwich City at the weekend.
Excitement is likely to be building among the fans, with Wednesday night's clash at the Swansea.com Stadium a total sellout, but Sheehan says he's doing his best to try to take the emotion out of the occasion.
"Right now I would say I am treating it as every other game I've been in," Sheehan said. "The hours that we do, they don't really change in terms of looking at different solutions and where we might need to get to.
"But it might be different during the game tomorrow. It could be somewhat different. But yeah, right now it's similar. But if you ask me after, I might say something different."
This will be the third cup meeting between the two sides in recent years, with the most noteworthy being their FA Cup quarter-final back in 2019.
The fixture is fondly remembered for an incredible team goal that was finished off by Bersant Celina, along with Sergio Aguero's controversial late winner, which replays suggested should have been disallowed for offside.
The penalty to level the game was similarly deemed controversial, and memories of that clash have seemingly been mentioned on the training ground in the build-up to this latest tie.
"There's been a few whispers here and there," Sheehan added.
"When you drive into the stadium, even when we got them, yeah, one of the lads was saying we were unfortunate the last time and speaking about a dubious goal...
"So I've heard about that. Look, there's memories to be created and that's what cup football is all about."
Jay Fulton played in both that game and the clash behind closed doors in 2021, a game that also featured Ben Cabango.
They are the only two players left from those two games, although summer signing Cameron Burgess was playing against Guardiola's charges in the Premier League last season.
Sheehan freely admits that leaning on the experience of those players could well be crucial to their efforts this time around.
"I think you've got Cameron and I think it was Ben here the last time," he added.
"I think we have to [look to them], you have to always, like, lean on the experience. It's not the oldest team we have.
"We've lost a lot of experience within the building, but these lads are excellent.
"The leadership group is really good, and everybody wants to play every game and these are the kind of games you want to play if you're a player.
"So I'm sure we'll have a couple of lads disappointed, but ultimately you can't give everybody an opportunity."
Victory would undoubtedly be the high point in Sheehan's managerial career, which remains at an embryonic stage. However, it would clearly also go down as one the most famous nights in Swansea's history.
"I think it would be massive," Sheehan added. "You're talking about one of the world's giants at the moment and they've been an incredible team for a number of years now.
"But for us to have them here in our stadium, I think we have to try and be as competitive as we can and hopefully have a really good night."
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