Planet Swans ArchivesRoberto Martinez
“The fact that we were so much in control probably cost us dearly,” he said. “It made us do some very uncharacteristic things.
“If you play like that nine times out of 10 you will win, but today we learned about the harsh realities of football in this league.
“To come to a place like this and get a point is not a bad situation, but there was only one team in it for a very long period of the match.
“The easiest thing in football is to deal with long balls, but for some reason we were not able to do it at the end.
“We lost concentration at the set-pieces and they got back into the game with their first goal. That gave them the belief they could go on and get a second, and the crowd got behind them.
“I thought as a squad we showed excellent maturity for the majority of the match, but we didn’t do enough to keep the ball in the dangerous areas of the pitch.
“We have no one to blame but ourselves and we have to make sure that we don’t allow it to happen again in the future.”
Dario Gradi
“It was hard work and they flew at them right from the start. The attitude was excellent, Swansea are a good team and good players so it was always going to be difficult – and it was.
“They did have more quality about their play than we did, but it was disappointing to concede the penalty after a short period. It was a stupid challenge.
“The second goal was also a ridiculous goal, and you begin to think everything is against you.
“To be fair, I wouldn’t have put much money on us at half time, but I have said that before and we have fought back. In the end it was the set plays that made the difference.
“In the end you have to say it was their spirit that got them the point, our goalkeeper didn’t have a lot of saves to make, they hadn’t scored a goal from a shot.”
