Russell Martin | We made mistakes in key moments and were punished

Russell Martin admitted his Swansea City side had been made to pay for their errors after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers at the Swansea.com Stadium.

The Swans fell to a disappointing loss in their first home game of the new Championship campaign, with Sammie Szmodics, Ben Brereton Diaz and Lewis Travis scoring as Rovers netted from three of their four shots on target.

Swansea had chances of their own, notably during a purple patch of pressure and chances early in the second half where Joel Piroe and Michael Obafemi went close, but the visitors broke away to grab their second through Brereton Diaz.

“We were punished for our mistakes and moments where we were not good enough,” said the Swans head coach.

“We had a good period in the second half and should have scored, and their second goal is a sucker punch.

“We wanted to be quicker with the ball, but they put loads of men deep in their half and any team would struggle to break that down.

“We have to do a bit of work on that, but I said a couple of weeks ago that how we react to mistakes or difficult moments will define that we do, and it defined it today.

“For the first goal we make a mistake, and then we follow it up with another mistake to allow the guy back into the middle of the pitch.

“We cannot follow one mistake with another.

“We certainly wanted more from the first half, we felt we were started to find ways to open things up towards the end of the half and then we had good energy at the start of the second half. We had chances, the crowd was willing us on and then we concede.

“It can’t happen and that comes down to anxiety and not being able to manage the moment and we were punished.

“We have to make more of the periods where we are on top. We know what we need to work on, and we have to continue to work hard and improve and keep believing.

“It’s a long season and I have no doubts about what this group of players is capable of.”