Potter rues "painful" first-half display

Graham Potter admitted his Swansea City side had contributed to their own downfall during a “painful” first-half display as they slid to a 3-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.

The Swans endured a miserable afternoon at Hillsborough, and trailed 3-0 at the break as an Adam Reach brace and Steve Fletcher’s acrobatic finish put the hosts firmly in control.

While Wednesday took their chances well, time and again Swansea were easily hassled and harried out of possession in South Yorkshire and they were rarely on the front foot during that opening period.

There was improvement after the break – with Wayne Routledge’s strike deflecting off a combination of a defender and Oli McBurnie to find the far corner – but their chances of a positive result pretty much vanished with their poor opening half.

“From our perspective we are disappointed with the first half, we were not at the level we need to be at,” said Potter.

“We had a couple of chances but we contributed to our own downfall and that’s a learning point for us.

“At half-time we were looking for a response and we had that and we had chances to make it 3-2, but you cannot do what we did in the first half and expect to get anything.

“That’s something we need to be better at, when the scoreline went against us we turned things down and did not play forward and it was a painful 45 minutes.

“The second half was better and, when you look at the chances, we were in it, but you cannot have that performance level first half and say we deserved anything.”