Phil SumblerRussell Martin was a man hurting as he looked back on the Swans 3rd Round FA Cup defeat to Southampton at the Swansea.com stadium yesterday evening. The Swans boss was speaking after watching his side beaten in extra time despite playing for more than 75% of the game with a man advantage.
Goals from Joel Piroe and a Southampton own goal looked to have cancelled out an early Nathan Redmond strike but two defensive lapses within five minutes gave the ten man visitors the goals that they needed to book their progression into the next round of a competition they reached the semi finals of last season.
It was a tough return for the Swans having lost four successive matches to Covid outbreaks in various teams and Martin recognised that fact in his post match interview but it was his end comments that will hit home amongst his team although it just highlights a run of form that the Swans are on that continually sees us being our own worst enemies when it comes to giving goals away to the opposition.
“We have plotted our own downfall which is disappointing because I should be coming out to talk about so much good stuff,” said Martin.
“I am really hurt by the manner in which we lost the game and I have told the lads it is not acceptable to lose a game like that.
“It’s the mentality after we score, we think it is done and you could see it in our body language. We got punished for it.
“We started quite nervously as a lot of the guys have not played for a long time,” he said.
“Seven or eight of the guys had not trained until this week and we grew into it.
“We conceded and I felt if we did not kick into gear after that it was going to be a long afternoon, but from that point I liked a lot of what we did.”
The Swans now have a week to prepare for their next game – a tough trip to an in form Huddersfield side next Saturday.
