Newport County (A) Cooper

Steve Cooper | We were second best

5th September
First team

Steve Cooper made no excuses after Swansea City’s Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Newport County, admitting: “We were second best.”

The League Two hosts stunned the Swans as a first-half brace from Tristan Abrahams sent the Exiles into the second round.

Captain Matt Grimes did strike the post for the Swans in the second half, while Wayne Routledge saw his goal ruled out for offside.

But Michael Flynn’s side were deserved winners at Rodney Parade.

Newport County (A) Cooper 3

"It's a disappointing result and a disappointing performance," said Cooper.

"Congratulations to Newport for going through to the next round.

"I think in simple terms, the non-negotiables of football, we were second best at today. When you do that, you always make it difficult for yourselves and that's what we did.

"We left it too late to try and get ourselves back in the game.

"No excuses. I know we're only a couple of weeks in, but we're not going to make any excuses, we were second best.

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"Every day we work on making sure there is good intensity and a good attitude to our work and there normally is with the players.

"I think it is something we are going to have to talk to them about tomorrow to try and get a better understanding of why we weren’t winning duels, why Newport were running more than us, why we weren’t picking up enough second balls, why we weren’t making enough passes - all the things that are required to win a football match."