Garrick aims to learn lessons

Jordon Garrick admits Swansea City’s young guns must learn the lessons from Wednesday’s Checkatrade Trophy exit against Bristol Rovers.

The winger fired the Swans’ under-21s into the lead against the League One side.

But the young Swans were undone by Tony Craig’s equaliser before substitute Alex Jakubiak struck late on to send Rovers into the third round.

The defeat ended another impressive run in the competition for the academy side, who reached the knockout stages of the Checkatrade Trophy for a third consecutive year.

And despite the disappointment of defeat, Garrick believes the young Swans can hold their heads high.

“It was a disappointing and unfortunate way to end the game,” the 20-year-old said.

“We need to look at it not as a loss but a lesson. We pick up, learn from it and we will be back because we have so many games coming up in so many different competitions.

“The Checkatrade Trophy is magnificent competition for us to play in because it opens our eyes to first-team football.

“It brings us a step closer to playing with older and more experienced players, so it is a valuable competition for players like me.

“Only a handful of academy teams made it this far, so we can take it as a positive that we were amongst them and look to build on this in the league.”

The Swans are next in action when they go to bottom-club Blackburn Rovers in a crucial Premier League 2 clash on Monday (midday).

Garrick, who scored his third goal of the season against Rovers, believes there is still plenty for the young Swans to play for in the league and cups this season.

But he feels they must start to turn lessons into results before the Christmas break.

“We can’t be disappointed too long,” Garrick continued, “We have to move on and prove we have learnt from games like Bristol Rovers.

“It was great to get the goal but I am aiming to score more to help the team. I will continue to work hard to keep adding goals to my game.

“On Wednesday we let our game plan slip and don’t think we managed the situation as well as we could have. That has to change.

“We have some key games coming up starting on Monday. We have plenty of players with experience at this level and we need to be leaders for the younger players coming through.”