Anthony Wright | I'm proud of the boys, but we fell short on the night

Coach Anthony Wright admitted disappointment was the overriding emotion after Swansea City Under-21s bowed out of the Nathaniel MG Cup, but was proud of the fashion in which the young Swans approached facing senior opposition in the competition.

The Swans suffered a 4-1 third-round defeat to Haverfordwest, with the Cymru Premier side opening the scoring through Owain Jones in the first half, before Greg Walters added a second early in the second period.

The Swans pulled a goal back through in-form Thomas Woodward, but a red card for Ramon Rees-Siso changed the course of the game, and the hosts went on to add further goals from Luc Owen and Ben Ahmun.

"It was a tough game which we knew it would be. I felt the game was in quarters, we had lots of possession and a couple of good half-chances the first twenty minutes where we were relatively pleased. We were on the front foot and playing through the opposition really well," said Wright.

"Then an individual error leads to their goal and that put us on the back foot. However, we did have a couple of good counter-attacks and finished the half off well. 

"The second half started well, we were creating some opportunities and then we get countered, which was a blow as I felt we were the team looking to get the next goal.

"In fairness to the players they went again and scored through Woody [Thomas Woodward] to make it 2-1, and we were pushing for the second goal at this point. 

"Then the turning point of the game came when we had Ramon sent off for a second yellow, which had an effect on the outcome of the game playing with 10 men for the last 20 minutes.

"There are always positives from the game especially with having so many players missing due to international duty and obviously loans. 

"We picked a team with a couple of players only returning from injury two days ago and a few of the players had to play out of position to get us through the game, we also opted to play away to give the players this experience.

"I am disappointed to lose the game especially in that fashion. It does make it a little tougher to take, and maybe the learning is we collectively got too emotional with the first booking which resulted in a crazy 10 minutes, and this is something we must be better at going forward.

"Ultimately, I am proud of the boys, but we just fell short."