Toshack rues missed opportunity

Cameron Toshack felt Swansea City Under-23s should have capitalised on their numerical advantage after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Derby County.

The young Swans took a first-half lead through Adnan Maric at Landore and appeared to be on course for three points when Max Bird was sent off shortly after the break.

However, Derby dug deep and claimed a point when Ikechi Anya struck a stunning equaliser 14 minutes from time.

“We felt that we weren’t quite at the races today and were a little disappointed with our application, particularly when they went down to 10 men,” Toshack said.

“The thing to do there is use the pitch and move the ball but, for some reason, we didn’t quite do that and didn’t pass the ball anywhere near as well as we can.”

However, the under-23s coach praised the spirit of Derby, who fielded two Scotland internationals in Anya and Chris Martin.

“You’ve got to give credit to Derby. They came here with two full internationals and there was quality within their ranks,” he added.

“We welcome that every week. Our young players have to step up and play against that. If you’re going to play at the highest level, you have to compete with those players regularly.

“They deserve real credit for keeping it tight when they went down to 10 men and scoring a fantastic goal in the end.”