Jon Grey | Poor start cost us

20th January
Jon Grey

Swansea City Under-23s coach Jon Grey says a poor start proved costly in their Premier League Cup defeat by Charlton Athletic.

The development side suffered their first loss in five games after going down 4-2 against the Addicks at Landore.

First-team regular Chuks Aneke scored a first-half hat-trick that left the Swans with a mountain to climb after the break at 4-1 behind.

The hosts responded well in the second half as Liam Cullen pulled a goal back – his second of the game – but it proved little more than a consolation as they suffered their third consecutive defeat in the competition.

“We went into the game with good momentum from our previous four performances, so starting off so poorly was a little bit disappointing,” Grey said.

“We were disappointed with the way we want about our defending, particularly in the first half.

“The boys came up against a first-team player who forced them into errors that they wouldn’t normally make and capitalised on them by scoring a hat-trick.

“We were always chasing the game from there. 

“We were happy with the second-half performance; I don’t think our goalkeeper had a save to make.

“But the fact we defended so badly in the first half put a tint on that.” 

Jon Grey

Nevertheless, the under-23s coach says the experience will provide a good learning curve for his side, whose average age was just under 19.

And while calling his patience with his young squad, he has encouraged them to focus on improving their consistency levels going forward.

“It’s a good learning curve to come up against players with more experience,” he added.

“Hopefully, our defenders will learn a lot and take it into the next game we play.

“They play in a category one league, so they do have experience, but they’re still young and their consistency levels at this moment won’t be as high as that of a first-team standard.

“We have to be patient with them; we expect them to fluctuate between consistency a fair bit.

“But if the boys want to go on and play first-team football, they’re going to have to build consistency in their performances.”