Alan Sheehan | We are frustrated, we did not create enough after conceding

Head coach Alan Sheehan was frustrated to see his Swansea City side lose to a goal from a set-piece against Middlesbrough on the opening day of the season.

Dael Fry’s second-half header proved the difference, the Boro defender glancing the ball into the far corner of the net from a corner.

It proved the decisive moment of a game of few clear-cut chances between two sides who largely cancelled each other out.

And Sheehan, while acknowledging Swansea had not created enough in the final third, was disappointed his side had not come away with a point from Teesside.

“We are frustrated because that was a game that had goalless draw written all over it,” said the Swans boss.

“I thought the first half was fine, we probably created the better opportunities, then in the second half we concede from a set-piece and we did not really recover from that.

“We lost a bit of our fluidity and structure and went a bit more direct. We made a few changes to but we created nowhere near enough opportunities after we fell behind.

“That was the big learning for us from here, we did not recover well enough from conceding with our decision-making and our final ball.

“It is disappointing because it was always going to be a very close game, defences were on top, there was not really a huge amount in the game.” 

Sheehan also confirmed captain Ben Cabango had come off with cramp during the closing stages.

“Yeah, Ben had a bit of cramp,” he said. He is such a leader and a warrior for us. We have had Jay Fulton and Arthur Parker filling in there for us and they have done a good job for the team. But to have the skipper back was positive, he played really well and defensively we looked very solid.”