Preview | Hull City U21s v Swansea City U21s
Swansea City Under-21s turn their attention to the Premier League Cup as they face Hull City this evening at the MKM Stadium (7pm).
The Swans won their two opening games of the group stage with a 4-0 showing over the Tigers and a 3-1 victory over Premier League 2 side Brighton & Hove Albion.
However, the Swans suffered heartbreak last time out in the cup as Aston Villa netted a 97th minute winner to claim a 4-3 win - condemning Swansea to a first defeat on home turf for over 12 months.
Swansea and Hull have already met twice this season, with the Swans running out 4-0 winners on both occasions.
The Tigers are looking for their first win in this season's competition.
Pre-match views
Coach Liam Ross:
"We’ve put ourselves in a great position in the Premier League Cup. We’ve had some really good results against some really good teams.Friday is another big game, if we go there and win then we put ourselves in a really good position to go through.
"The players have to quickly dust themselves down after defeat against Cardiff on Tuesday, and be ready to go again physically and mentally, because it’s a huge game.
"We’ve played Hull a few times this season. They have some good attacking players who will cause us problems, but in the games we’ve played against them, one at Landore and one at the stadium, I thought the boys were excellent.
"But that was a couple of months ago and we have to recognise this is a new game and we cannot take anything for granted.
"We need to go into this with a new mindset. Hull will have a plan for us, and we will do our homework and make sure the players are as physically and mentally ready as they can be.
"Hopefully, we can put in a good performance, take the three points and put ourselves in a really good position."
Previous meeting - September 12 2021
Hull City 1 Swansea City 0
Swansea Under-23s suffered defeat at Hull City when they last visited the Tigers in the opening Professional Development League game of the 2021-22 season.
The visitors had their chances but couldn’t find a way through against the Tigers as Will Jarvis netted the only goal of the game at York City’s LNER Community Stadium.
Hull started brightly, piling on the pressure in the early stages of the game, with Nico Defreitas-Hansen in the Swans goal forced into a good save from McCauley Snelgrove’s curling effort.
The hosts were forced into a first-half substitution, with Oliver Green coming off the field for Harry Wallis just 18 minutes in, and from there the Swans began to enjoy a good spell of their own.
Richard Faakye put in an excellent ball for Ben Margeston, but the defender’s looping header flew just over the bar.
Tarrelle Whittaker then forced Harvey Cartwright in the Hull City goal into a double save, the keeper pushing his deflected drive away before holding the follow up shot.
Dylan Morgan came close to breaking the deadlock just after the break, his close-range header well saved by the Hull City goalkeeper.
But it would be the home side who found themselves ahead through Jarvis. The winger cutting in from the left wing before firing into the top corner.
Swansea City U23s: Nico Defreitas-Hansen, Ben Margetson, Scott Butler, Richard Faakye, Harry Jones, Jacob Jones, Sam Leverett, Azeem Abdulai, Dylan Morgan, Joel Cotterill, Tarrelle Whittaker.
Substitutes: Rio Campbell, Jamie Searle, Ben Lloyd, Adrian Akande, Jaden Forrester.