Anthony Wright | We Lacked a Cutting Edge

Swansea City Under-21s’ assistant coach Anthony Wright felt the young Swans had lacked a cutting edge in their 2-0 Premier League Cup defeat against Stoke City.

The Swans had needed to avoid defeat to keep themselves in the hunt to progress from Group G, but Nathan Lowe nodded the Potters into the lead, before Kai Ludvigsen put through his own net after the defender had been unable to keep out Dara McGuinness’ shot.

Despite bowing out of the competition with a group game to spare, Wright commended the Swans for their recent displays against category one opposition, but he acknowledged they had lacked a ruthless touch in front of goal.

“We’re a little bit disappointed overall. I don’t think we started the game well enough, we gave the opposition a bit too much momentum with the way that they pressed us," said Wright.

“In that time, we are disappointed that we conceded a goal from a set-piece, which we always feel we should do better from. 

“We sort of got into the game, we were just starting to find some space and open them up, and during a time when we were gaining momentum we gave a poor goal away. 

“Going in at half-time at 2-0, we just spoke about a couple of things we could have done better as a group. 

“In the second half, we probably dominated the game in possession, but in all truth we lacked that cutting edge we’ve had in recent weeks.  

“Although we had a lot of possession, overall we weren't up to the standard that we set ourselves.  

“We’ve not qualified, and that is something which we wanted to do.  

“We’ll go to Burnley, and like I say, it’s all about development. We’ll look at the players from a different perspective for next week, we’ll look at their application and attitude. 

“We’ve played against category one teams in this tournament, and we’ve shown that we are more than capable to compete with them.”