Richards: Mistakes cost us

Gary Richards admitted Swansea City Under-23s did not do themselves any favours in their 6-3 defeat against Newcastle United in the Premier League Cup.

The young Swans made a losing start to their title defence on a bitterly cold afternoon at Little Benton Academy on Wednesday as Tom Heardman scored four times for the Magpies.

Goals conceded in quick succession at the start and end of the first half proved to be the visitors' downfall.

And Richards knows it is an area where the Swans must improve ahead of their eagerly anticipated showdown with Charlton Athletic in the Checkatrade Trophy on Tuesday.

"I think the scoreline tells you everything," he said. "Going forward we carried a good threat but individual mistakes cost us. 

“We are disappointed to concede six goals and very easy ones too.

"We've spoken about the importance of digging in if we concede a goal and then not conceding again straight afterwards. We've not done ourselves any favours.

"We need to look at ourselves and make sure that we perform better than that, which we do normally.

"The Checkatrade Trophy is important. We did well to get through the group and we want to recover and give a good account of ourselves on Tuesday."