Joe Roberts | We did not handle our defensive transitions well enough

Swansea City Under-18s coach Joe Roberts admitted his side must improve their work without the ball after seeing them fall to a 3-1 defeat against Wigan Athletic at the Joma High Performance Centre.

First-half goals from Daniel Gelhardt and Charlie Gelhardt and a late finish from Erdis Reci secured the win for the Latics, after Harvey Gray had pulled a goal back for Swansea just before half-time.

This was the young Swans’ first home league defeat of the season, and their first in three matches, following convincing wins against Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday before the international break.

Roberts was frustrated with the result but felt his side could take positives from certain spells of the match, adding that the lessons learned would benefit the team’s development.

“It was a frustrating one, I think we had issues and problems we needed to solve and we just didn’t do that quick enough within the game," said Roberts.

“I think we had spells where we had a bit of control and did make good things happen but inevitably through those bits of control we just weren’t set up enough at the other end of the pitch to protect ourselves, and then we got punished.

“Our decision-making in how we set up behind the ball needs to be better and how we can deal with the transition, which will be good learning for the lads. We weren’t good enough at that in spells.

“We will look at the game and find out why and try to improve them to be ready to take into Peterborough next week, which will be a long journey but another opportunity for the boys to have that exposure of travel and preparation, which will help towards their development.”

It had been a busy week for some of the Swans side, with players travelling all over the world to represent Wales at various age groups during the international period, whilst the break also gave the opportunity for some of the under-18s' squad to train and play with the under-21s.

Roberts believes such exposure is crucial to his side's development, and will only benefit them going forward.

“It’s been a really varied period, it has been 10 days or so where we have had boys going to represent Wales internationally all over the world, we have had boys training in the under-21s' environment and boys playing for the under-21s," he added.

“The exposure they can gain from these environments and the bits of learning they can take are really important.

"We want to shorten those gaps between the groups and make improvements in our individual players and collectively allowing them to perform in the style that we want to play.”