Cameron Toshack hails U23s' "mature" display

Cameron Toshack felt Swansea City Under-23s showed maturity in all areas of their game after kicking off their Premier League 2 Division 2 with a 1-0 win at Norwich City.

Brandon Cooper’s stunning 25-yard strike proved the difference at Colney Training Centre, in a game which also saw the hosts reduced to ten men after Saul Milovanovic was dismissed for a second booking.

Cooper fired home after 36 minutes, while the Swans also had a number of chances to seal victory.

Nevertheless, it was a performance which had plenty of positives and pleased Toshack and fellow coach Gary Richards.

“It’s always a good feeling to get the season off to a winning start,” said Toshack. “The performance for the first hour really pleased us. It showed myself and Gary that the players have taken on board what we have worked on during the summer and put it into practice.

“We had the majority of possession and we moved the ball well across the pitch. That in turn allowed us to create a few chances which Jordon Garrick helped provide, but we didn’t take them and that is something we will improve on.

“But there a lot of positives we will take from the game. When Norwich were reduced to ten men it meant a different kind of challenge for our players, and they will take a lot from that situation. Our players were very mature in the way they dealt with everything in the match.

“Norwich kept going and going, and we had to show a different side to our game which we had in place for the first hour.”

Toshack added: “Brandon took his goal very well. He’s a centre-back but we moved him to the left-back role and he did very well there.

“It was some strike, and it was worthy of winning any game.”

The Swans will monitor Cameron Berry after the substitute was replaced late on following a clash with keeper Josh Gould.

Next up for the development side is a home fixture with Aston Villa at Landore on Monday, August 19.