Richards expects tough Wolves challenge

Gary Richards admits Swansea City Under-23s are expecting a tough challenge when they face an in-form Wolverhampton Wanderers in their Premier League Cup clash tonight (7pm).

The young Swans travel to New Bucks Head – home of National League North side A.F.C. Telford United – for what will be a battle of the top two in Group E.

With two group games remaining, Wolves have the edge by a single point and arrive in the contest off the back of four wins from their last five matches in all competitions.

Richards is, therefore, expecting a competitive fixture against Rob Edwards’ side, but has encouraged his players to rise to the occasion.

“Playing Wolves away is going to be a good challenge,” the under-23s coach said. 

“You can see they’re going well and in good form, so we know it’s going to be a competitive game.

“We want our players to come up against good teams and, in that aspect, we’re really looking forward to the game but, at the same, we know we have to be at our best to get a good result.”

Despite opening with a defeat at Oxford United, the young Swans have responded well by remaining unbeaten in their following three games in this competition.

With a trip to Hull City coming up in two weeks’ time, victory in Shropshire this evening will put them on the brink of qualification to the knockout stages for a third consecutive year.

And Richards admits that achieving progression is high on the development side’s priority list.

“At the start of the season, our target was to progress to the knockout stages and we’ve put ourselves in a good position after the first four games,” he added.

“We’ve got momentum but our two remaining games are very important now.

“Therefore, we’ll be doing everything we can to get a good result this evening.”

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