Anthony Wright | The performance showed exactly what we’re about as a club

13th February
Academy

Swansea City Under-21s' coach Anthony Wright was full of pride for his side and felt their performance in their 2-2 draw with Cardiff City had been in the best traditions of the club they represent.

The Swans had led the Professional Development League fixture thanks to Liam Walsh’s header, but second-half goals from Morgan Wigley and Gavin Whyte gave the visitors the lead.

But substitute Josh Thomas made no mistake when handed the chance to level 10 minutes from time as the spoils were shared.

Wright was extremely proud of the dominant display the under-21s put on at Landore, and believes there are plenty of positives to be taken going forward.

“I’m super proud of the players. I think we showed exactly what we’re about as a club, we dominated the game," said Wright.

“Individually and collectively, I thought the performance from start to finish was terrific. It’s probably our best performance in our last 18 months of this journey.  

“I really enjoyed tonight, and I’m immensely proud of the way they applied themselves.  

“They are disappointed not to have won. I know their coach [Darren Purse] and he said that we were terrific tonight. For us, it’s a bit of a blow we haven’t come away with a convincing win .  

“In fairness to their young keeper tonight, he’s done really well for them with the chances we created. We missed a couple, and then a couple of ricochets that didn’t really fall our way.  

“We’ve just said to the boys that we’re so proud of them. For a young group, the unity within the club is immense."

Meanwhile, the trio of Ben Lloyd, Thomas and Ruben Davies returned to the matchday squad after being sidelined with injury and made sure to have an impact on their return. 

“Josh and Ben had 30 minutes and without a doubt made an impact. Ruben did really well for 60 minutes for his first game back in three months," Wright added. 

“Kian Jenkins fitted in as if he’d never been away, also. But again, we’re really proud as it was a night where a couple of players played in a different position.  

“For tonight’s game we changed shape and today’s the first test that we’ve had where we’ve had questions asked and dealt with everything. 

“You see it so many times in every level of football. We were so dominant, even I as coach had a feeling that they are going to nick a goal and that’s what happened. 

“That’s something we’ll look at; we know we can do better for the goal, and we’ll put that into place over the next couple of days leading into the next game. 

“The positive is that we were so dominant in the game, and as a young group, they could have just thrown the towel in, but they didn't, and they stuck to their principles and went again.

“Not only did we score to equalise, but we had more chances to win the game from that point. Overall, I’m absolutely over the moon for the players tonight.”