Preview | Swansea City U23s v Colchester United U23s

Swansea City Under-23s defender Brandon Cooper is hopeful that today’s Premier League Cup showdown with Colchester United will see the development side kick-start another impressive run of results.

Fans are advised that today’s match at Landore will now kick off at 2pm.

You can watch the action live on swanseacity.com and our official Facebook page.

The young Swans welcome the Professional Development League side to South Wales for their third match in Group A, having collected three points from their opening two games.

After launching their campaign with a 2-1 victory at Charlton, the under-23s succumbed 1-0 to Reading earlier this month.

The development side are aiming to end a run of five matches without a win in all competitions.

However, during that span, Gary Richards and Cameron Toshack have presented opportunities for several under-18s players to make the step-up and, despite the results, there have certainly been plenty of positives in terms of the performance levels within the squad.

Cooper, who has made 14 appearances for the young Swans in all competitions this season, is confident it is only a matter of time before he and his team-mates turn those encouraging displays into positive results.

“We’re looking to get another good result and, hopefully, we can achieve that,” the 19-year-old defender said.

“If you can get your performance right then the points will eventually follow. 

“We must control what is in our hands and, hopefully, the results will take care of themselves.

“All being well, we can start putting good runs together like the one we had not so long ago.

“I don’t think we’re that far away, to be honest. With a bit of consistency, we’ll be there.”

Cooper is one of only a handful of remaining players that faced Colchester when the sides were drawn in the group stages of the 2017-18 Premier League Cup.

The centre-half, who had just broken into the under-23s set-up at that time, played in both games as the Swans triumphed 5-1 at Landore, before prevailing narrow 4-3 winners at the JobServe Community Stadium.

In the first of those showdowns, Cooper was paired alongside the experienced figure of Federico Fernandez in the heart of defence.

The Argentine – now of Newcastle United – was getting valuable minutes under his belt ahead of returning to the first-team set-up under then head coach Paul Clement.

And it was an experience that proved hugely beneficial for Cooper.

“Playing alongside Federico was a great experience for me. Obviously, it’s a long time ago now but you always remember things like that straightaway,” he recalls.

“He’s such a good player who has played in the Premier League for a few years now.

“Even though we only played together for one game, I certainly learned a lot from him and that has stuck with me. 

“There wasn’t too much talking on his behalf, but he was leading by example. Everything he did was to a high standard and with good quality. He demonstrated the levels that you needed to be at and aspire towards.

“Hopefully, I can go on and, one day, reach the heights that he has.”