Potter praises battling Swans after Liberty thriller

Graham Potter praised the battling spirit of his Swansea City side as they struck in injury time to claim a dramatic 3-3 draw against Birmingham.

In a thrilling see-saw encounter the Swans had twice led against the 10-man visitors, but found themselves trailing in stoppage time at the Liberty Stadium.

Daniel James had given them the lead only for Jacques Maghoma to level for the visitors, who then had Kristian Pedersen sent off on the stroke of half-time after his second yellow card.

Oli McBurnie’s excellent header restored the hosts lead, but they were almost immediately pegged back as a Michael Morrison header found the net via deflections off Erwin Mulder and Matt Grimes.

Che Adams then put Birmingham ahead for the first time and Swansea looked set to end a frenetic evening with nothing.

However, McBurnie swept home from Mike van der Hoorn’s knockdown to help extend the Swans’ unbeaten run to seven games.

And, while disappointed with the manner of the goals Swansea conceded, Potter could not fault the desire of his team to keep pressing as time ticked down.

“In the end you are happy with a point and happy with the way the players kept going and kept going as it looked like being one of those nights where we would end up with nothing,” said the Swans boss.

“We started well, were in control of the game, scored a good goal and probably just dropped our level a bit.

“They scored from a goal-kick, a knockdown and a strike which was disappointing as we had spoken about that before the game.

“The sending off changes the dynamic of the game, it puts the onus on us to score.

“We did that and then you want to use the extra man and manage the game and make it count.

"But we didn’t do that, we conceded directly after from a disappointing goal and then the third goal, when everything is a little bit stressed, is a bit of a kicker.

“From there it’s about about the reaction of the players to get back in the game. We pushed and pushed, their keeper has made some good saves, we have had some chances.

“And, in the end, you are happy to score in the last minute to keep the unbeaten run going and move forward.”