Richards: Brighton defeat hurts

Gary Richards admits he and the players were left feeling the pain after Swansea City Under-23s’ late Premier League 2 defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion.

The young Swans let a two-goal lead slip at Landore as Brighton came from behind to snatch a dramatic 3-2 victory in the dying moments.

The result leaves the development side 11th in the top flight of development football with 10 points from their opening 11 games.

And Richards insists his players must raise their game if they are to move up the table.

“A result like this hurts and it should hurt the players as well,” the under-23s coach said. “We know that performance is not good enough and we need to manage games better than that.

“We felt we had control of the first half and came in at half-time fairly pleased at 2-0 up.

“We lost control of the game in the latter part of the second half. They had a 20-minute spell where they took their chances and made the most of individual errors.

“The goals we gave away were really disappointing because we have not kept the ball as well as we should have. 

“As a team, we have to start getting points and rising up the table, but we have to perform better than that.”

The under-23s are back in action on Friday evening, when they welcome Hull City to Landore in the Premier League Cup.

Richards has urged the young Swans to quickly learn their lesson ahead of a busy period of matches across all competitions.

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” he added. “We have to make sure that we are ready for the next test because we have a lot of games coming up.

“We have to show a bit of character and make sure we show we have learnt and are ready.”