Swansea City boss, Steve Cooper, hailed the mental toughness of Andre Ayew when he scored the winner in Swansea City’s first-leg win over Brentford.
The Swans hosted Brentford in the first leg of the Skybet Championship playoff at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday.
Ayew missed a crucial penalty in the second half of the game.
However, the U-20 World Cup winner came back strongly to score an audacious goal for the Wales-based club with nine minutes remaining.
It ensures Swansea head into Wednesday’s second leg a goal to the good, and head coach Cooper praised the strength of character shown by his vice-captain.
“Andre has missed a penalty, but brushed it off and raised his game even more, and it came off with the goal,” Cooper told the official club website.
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“His mentality is of the highest order, to brush off the disappointing return from a penalty where you fancied him.
“To have such an impact and score the goal tells you everything about the mentality he has.
“If anything, the miss affected him in a positive way.
“He is really important for us, and what is more impressive with his goalscoring record is that for a lot of the season he has played out wide, and not through the middle.
“Before Rhian came here he was our main hope for being a goalscorer, and he has lived up to the level of player we know he is,” he added
Ayew has scored 18 goals in all competitions.