Phil SumblerRussell Martin is an honest football manager and yesterday faced up to the fact that maybe he and his coaching staff had worked the squad too hard over the international break period as he wondered the reasons why he felt they lacked energy in the draw against Blackpool.
The Swans boss was speaking after watching his side concede late on to take just a point from a game that they led for a long period following Joel Piroe’s excellent strike in the first half.
A series of penalty appeals were all turned down by Keith Stroud as the Swans failed to dominate like they had done in recent home games and whilst the unbeaten run at home continues it was not to be a fifth straight league win at the Swansea.com stadium and a place in the top 10 that would have gone with it.
Martin spoke to the press after the game and said “In the first half I thought we were really good against a very aggressive press. They were really well organised and you could see why they have such good away form.
“I thought we would weather the storm for that 10 or 15 minutes and come out with a bit more energy, but we did not do enough in that period to have any control.
“We played some great stuff through the press and gave the ball up way too easy, we tried to force things and got a bit anxious I think.
“We should have had two penalties which would have changed the game, but I don’t want to blame the referee for drawing the game. We conceded a really poor goal, and that’s not on him, that’s on us.
“It was really frustrating second half, it feels like we have lost even though we haven’t.
“They had far too much ball and we did not have enough energy and intensity, and as a coaching group I think we have to take responsibility for that and maybe we worked the guys too hard this last couple of weeks.
“But we have a point, we are unbeaten in a long time at home and we have a chance to put things right on Wednesday.”
