Report | Swansea City U23s 0 Birmingham City U23s 3

A youthful Swansea City Under-23s' side were beaten 3-0 by Birmingham City in the Professional Development League at Landore.

Despite the result, the game provided a hugely positive learning experience for the young Swans.

Jon Grey made eight changes to the side beaten by Hull City last time out, with his matchday squad consisting entirely of teenagers.

Among them were nine scholars, while there were debuts at this level for Cian Williams, Rio Campbell, Adnaan Moti and Aaron Hillier.

Birmingham started strongly and effectively wrapped up the game inside the opening 25 minutes. 

Following Miguel Fernandez’s early free-kick, Josh Andrews doubled the lead after a quickfire counter attack in the 20th minute, before Jack Concannon’s drilled strike completed the scoring.

Result aside, Grey insists the game provided many positives for his young side.

“At the moment, results aren’t going our way, but the exposure these players are getting at this level will definitely benefit them moving forward,” the under-23s coach said.

“It was probably one of the youngest teams we have ever fielded at this level.

“We had five first-year pros and the rest of the boys are all scholars.

“It’s tough for them because no-one wants to lose games, but we want our players to have these experiences a little bit earlier than we have in the past.

“That’s really important to us and, that way, they will hopefully be ready to challenge for the first-team environment earlier than they have been.

“Birmingham started off really well and a few of our lads were a little bit nervous.

"We grew into the game as it went on and created a few chances, but were a little bit disappointed not to put one of them away.” 

Swansea City U23s: Jamie Searle, Ryan Bevan, Cian Williams, Jake Thomas, Jacob Jones, Erick Kenko, Morgan Clarke, Bradley Gibbings, Cameron Congreve (Adnaan Moti), Adrian Akandi (Rio Campbell), Josh Thomas (Aaron Hillier).

Sub not used: Panashe Makokowe.

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