No excuses for cup exit, admits Angel
24th January
Angel Rangel conceded the Swans deserved to exit the FA Cup following a 3-1 defeat at Championship side Blackburn Rovers.
Despite being reduced to ten men in the sixth minute following Kyle Bartley's dismissal, Garry Monk's side took the lead at Ewood Park thanks to Gylfi Sigurdsson's stunning 25-yard strike which nestled into the top corner.
But they were pegged back almost immediately as Chris Taylor beat Lukasz Fabianski from close range just two minutes later.
The Swans held their own, despite their man disadvantage, until the 78th minute when sub Rudy Gestede poked home a quickly-taken corner before Craig Conway's shot squirmed under Fabianski late on to seal the Swans' fate.
To round off a hugely disappointing day for the visitors, Sigurdsson saw red for a challenge in added-on time to see the Swans finish the game with nine men.
And Rangel, captain for the day due to Ashley Williams' absence through injury, felt the Swans got what they deserved.
"The aim today was to get a response from last week's defeat (to Chelsea), and I don't think we got the standards which we should have reached," he said.
"There are no excuses from us, and we must apologise to the fans that travelled to Blackburn to support us.
"It was a missed opportunity in the FA Cup, which is a great competition. But we didn't deserve to get through to the next round."
He added: "It doesn't get any easier when you've had a man sent off in the first few minutes, and it was an uphill battle from then on.
"We had to adjust straight away and bring on (Federico) Fernandez which means we saw Tom (Carroll) come off, and that saw us lose an attacking option as Gylfi dropped back.
"But we held them for the first half and even managed to take the lead, but to concede so soon after is very disappointing from our point of view.
"Their second goal changed the game completely because we had to chase the game.
"It was a very disappointing day for us, and now we have to focus on the trip to Southampton and put in a hugely improved performance."
