Richards pleased with U23s' spirit

Gary Richards was pleased with the spirit shown by Swansea City Under-23s in their 5-3 defeat by West Ham United on Sunday.

The young Swans made a poor start at the Chigwell Construction Stadium and found themselves 4-0 down by the 65th minute.

However, they hit back with three goals in the space of 18 minutes, before seeing their hopes of a positive result killed off when the Hammers scored a fifth in stoppage time.

Richards admits the development side left themselves with a tall order, but was pleased with the character they showed in almost turning the contest around.

“Some of the goals we conceded were avoidable and we were disappointed by that,” the under-23s coach said. “We left ourselves a mountain to climb.

“There wasn’t a tremendous amount in the match – our goalkeeper only had to make one save, which was a shot from distance, but we found ourselves 3-0 down.

“We were much better in the second half and had the upper hand. They got another goal, but we showed a lot of character to get back into the match. When we got our first goal, the game completely flipped. We got three goals and were right back in it.

“We went all out to try to get the equaliser and left ourselves open for them to score their fifth goal.”