Alan Curtis: Swansea City confidence is fragile
31st December
Alan Curtis reckons Swansea City showed they are suffering a crisis of confidence after they were beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth.
The Swans succumbed to a fourth successive defeat on another painful afternoon at the Liberty Stadium, and lie bottom of the table heading into the new year.
Not for the first time in recent weeks, they started the game reasonably well before suffering badly having fallen behind.
"The first goal seems to be crucial at the moment," said Curtis, the Swans' caretaker boss.
"Confidence seems to drain from us when we go behind. I suppose the explanation for that is that we are bottom of the table, we are not winning games and we are conceding too many goals.
"It's a crisis of confidence when we concede a goal.
"And when the second goal went in just before half-time, that didn't do us any favours.
"I thought we were a little better in the second half, but we're disappointed of course.
"I still think there should be enough in our squad to get better results, but confidence in sport, especially football, is such a fragile thing.
"When we concede, you seem to see the confidence drain out of the players."
The Swans fell behind on 25 minutes when some sloppy defending allowed Benik Afobe to sweep the ball home.
Bournemouth's second goal arrived in first-half stoppage time as a sweet move ended with Ryan Fraser tapping in.
And a final layer of misery was added late on when a swift breakaway ended with Josh King beating a helpless Lukasz Fabianski.
"We just have to get on and prepare for the next game now," Curtis added.
"That's all we can do. We are back in on Sunday, although it will be session for the players who have not played today really.
"We have the game at Crystal Palace on Tuesday. Who knows, there may be a new manager in place by then, but I am not sure as I have not heard anything new.
"I will try to catch up with the chairman and if there's no news, we will carry on and try to do the best we can."
