Gary Richards eyes continued progress against Barry

Swansea City Under-23s coach Gary Richards hopes the development side can round off a productive pre-season with another improved performance when they face JD Cymru Premier side Barry Town United this evening (7.45pm).

The young Swans travel to Jenner Park to complete their preparations for the Premier League 2 Division 2 campaign, which begins away at Norwich City next Friday.

It has been a pre-season of progress for the development side, who have produced encouraging displays against senior opposition in Merthyr Town, Torquay United and Carmarthen Town.

And Richards is hoping for more of the same against Gavin Chesterfield’s side, who finished third in the top-flight of Welsh football last season and recently appeared in the Europa League preliminary round.

“We just want to see another improvement on our previous game and to put some of the work we’ve done on the training field training into practice,” Richards said.

“Barry qualified for Europe last year and have done very well under Gavin. Therefore, when we arranged this fixture, we knew it would provide a really good test for us going into the league campaign.

“We feel like it’s been quite a good pre-season for us. Apart from the odd result, we’ve been very pleased because we’ve certainly got a lot out of our games against quality opposition.

“We’re hopeful that we’re where we want to be. The players have worked extremely hard and we feel like we’re in a really good place, which is exactly what we want.”