Lewis proud of Checkatrade turnaround

Joe Lewis reckons Swansea City Under-21s have shown tremendous progress in a short space of time after qualifying for the knockout stages of the Checkatrade Trophy.

A youthful development side were beaten 5-0 by Stevenage in their opening match of the competition, but responded brilliantly with back-to-back 1-0 victories over AFC Wimbledon and Charlton Athletic to progress as Group G winners.

Lewis, who played in August’s defeat by Stevenage, believes the young Swans can take a lot of pride in the way they have turned things around.

“It’s a big achievement,” the defender said. “We always knew it was possible.

“It was a big learning curve for a lot of the boys against Stevenage, but that only helped us improve going into our next two games.

“We have quite a new group of players this year, so qualifying as group winners is a great boost for everyone.

“It shows how far we’ve come in the space of a couple of months.”