91Èȱ¬

Swansea City head coach Michael Duff says "the season starts now" as he hopes a busy end to the transfer window can help revive his struggling team.

The Swans are winless in their first five Championship games under Duff.

After signing Josh Tymon, Kristian Pedersen, Bashir Humphreys and Jamal Lowe on deadline day, Duff is aiming for a fresh start.

"We've got new players in the building now," he said after Saturday's 2-1 home defeat against Bristol City.

"We've got four new players that will give us a better balance. There's good competition for places now.

"People need to put their hands up. The season almost starts now."

Swansea appointed former Cheltenham Town and Barnsley boss Duff in June as a successor to Russell Martin, who left to join Southampton.

Although Duff has overseen one win in the Carabao Cup, he has yet to taste victory as Swans head coach in the Championship, losing three of his first five games.

"I think it's the mentality," Duff said.

"You can talk about formations, players and managers but, if your opponent runs harder than you, it's going to be difficult.

"The reason why you retire from football is because you can't run. I can still kick and head the ball… but I can't run anymore because I'm fat and old.

"It happened in the last couple of years, it's happened with us [new coaching staff] so we need to address it.

"We've got a young group and it's that mentality of every day needing to push each other."

The defeat against Bristol City was Swansea's last fixture before the international break, with Duff's men returning to action with a south Wales derby at Cardiff on 16 September.

"It's an important game, but it's not the be-all and end-all," the former Northern Ireland centre-back said.

"I'd rather win promotion and get beat by Cardiff twice.

"People might not like that sometimes, but we need to show more fight and sprit to give us a chance of getting a result."