Cameron Toshack | Lack of consistency cost us

24th August

Swansea City Under-23s coach Cameron Toshack believes that a lack of consistency in the development side's performance levels was the key factor as they went down 3-2 against Middlesbrough.

The development side suffered their first defeat of the Premier League 2 Division 2 season at Boro, where they found themselves 3-0 behind after 47 minutes.

Nevertheless, following a couple of tactical changes, they responded well as goals from Liam Cullen and Josh Thomas in the final 24 minutes set up a grandstand finish at Rockliffe Park.

The visitors almost snatched a point with Oli Cooper agonisingly close to finding an equaliser in the dying seconds.

Toshack was pleased with the way his players finished the game, but insists they must be ready from the get-go at this level.

“We just lacked a little bit of consistency and struggled to gain a foothold in the game early on,” the under-23s coach said.

“Even though Middlesbrough were the better team in the first half, all three goals came from errors of ours.

"That happens with young players and it’s something that, along their journey this year, we hope they learn from soon rather than later.

“But the really pleasing thing for us was the last half-hour. We made a couple of changes and the boys that came on added real energy to proceedings. In the end, we were unlucky not get a point at least. 

“We scored two good goals and had three other decent chances that, on another day, we would have converted and come away with a win.

“The guys just need to realise that they can’t wait to play themselves into games. Their levels of consistency have to be at a good level from the get-go.”