Swansea's Irish boss fans flames of expectation after taking Nottingham Forest scalp in Carabao Cup

Alan Sheehan said a clear-the-air meeting ahead of the Carabao Cup clash with Nottingham Forest was crucial to their dramatic victory over Ange Postecoglou's side.

Two goals in stoppage time clinched a 3-2 victory for the Swans after Igor Jesus' first two goals for Forest put the Premier League visitors into a commanding lead.

But Sheehan, who hails from Athlone, pointed to a meeting held after the late concession of a goal handed Hull a 2-2 on Saturday as a key element to Swansea's triumph, with Ireland international John Egan scoring just before the final whistle.

“We had a big meeting after conceding a 97th-minute goal against Hull last weekend," he said. "It was all about mentality and tonight wasn’t so much about playing against Forest, but more against ourselves.

“We wanted to put our stamp on the game, and we were unlucky to go into the break 2-0 down. But credit to the players, they kept going right to the end and it was a wonderful win.

“We have had a magnificent night, but we have to get ready for the Birmingham City game in just over 60 hours’ time and all eyes now turn to that game.”

Sheehan knows that expectations are building for the ambitious Swans to launch an ambitious bid for promotion this season. "I'm not one to put water on the fire – I'm probably more a guy who puts petrol on it," he admitted.

"I'm not going to dampen what people want to believe because I won't shy away from it. We want to improve on last year. We're building something, I do believe that."

The result left Postecoglou waiting for his first victory since taking charge of Forest last Thursday. “I wasn’t frustrated, I just thought it was a game we should have killed off long before it got to the stage it did,” Postecoglou said.

“I just sensed we felt the game was getting a bit comfortable and the game would finish off easily. But that’s not what happens in football, especially in cup football.

“I thought we scored a good third goal, which was disallowed, and the guys got a bit comfortable in that moment. You have to know the warning signs in cup football. If you let sides in, there is always a chance they could do what they did to us.

“When you have a team where we had them, you have to finish them off and we had plenty of opportunities to do that. A couple of decisions didn’t go our way and I just thought the players felt it was going to finish that way.

“We’ve paid a heavy price for that and we need to improve. They had two shots from outside the box in the first half and they didn’t really test us until the end.

“There were a lot of players out there who you could see were a bit rusty, but even in that context, we were well in control of that game.”