Anthony Wright | The performance of a young group was something to be proud of

Swansea City Under-21s' coach Anthony Wright praised the performance of a very young squad after they rounded off their Premier League Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against Nottingham Forest at the Joma High Performance Centre.

The Swans had nine scholars in the matchday squad, with three of them being first years, and were able to match a Forest side who were all-but unchanged from a win over PSG earlier in the week.

The visitors had taken the lead late in the first half through Danny Anisjko in a cagey opening 45 minutes that saw few clear chances for either side.

The Swans grew into the contest after the break and were rewarded with a deserved equaliser through Callum Jones, capping a memorable week for the winger following his goal in the under-18s’ FA Youth Cup victory over Leeds United on Monday.

The draw brought the group stage of the Premier League Cup to a close, with Swansea finishing second behind Forest to secure qualification for the knockout rounds.

Wright was pleased with how his young side responded in the second half, believing they could even have gone on to win the match late on.

“I thought they had the momentum in the first half without troubling our goal too much, but we weren’t connecting like we usually do. We then give away a cheap goal by not making contact, and defensively it was too easy,” Wright said.

"The second half was totally the opposite. I thought we had all the momentum, we started winning our duels individually which gave us a foothold in the game, and our build-up play was much cleaner. That resulted in us creating chances, and we had two really good opportunities towards the end to win the game.

“It’s another great result against a Category One team while having nine scholars involved, three of them first years. We lost Yori [Griffith] in the warm-up, which meant bringing in Alfie [Jones], who is just 16, and I thought he played really well.

“The boys who came off the bench made a big impact. We say to the players every week that we rarely play the same team, so everyone gets minutes. Here, we had to find the right balance because of the under-18s’ game earlier in the week and we are really pleased with how the guys performed."