Vitor Matos | They took their chances, we did not take ours

Vitor Matos felt a clinical edge in front of goal had been the key difference after watching his Swansea City side lose 3-0 to Championship leaders Coventry City at the Swansea.com Stadium.

All the goals came in a frantic 11-minute first-half period. Brandon Thomas-Asante opened the scoring from the spot after the officials missed Ephron Mason-Clark losing his footing and adjudged that he had been fouled by Ben Cabango.

Matt Grimes’ strike from the edge of the area doubled the league leaders’ advantage, and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto made it 3-0 two minutes before the break.

But that barely told the story of the half, with Josh Tymon having hit the bar for the hosts in the early stages, with Goncalo Franco heading narrowly wide moments after the opener, and Melker Widell then thumping a strike against the post shortly after Coventry’s second goal.

After all that drama, the visitors were largely untroubled during the second period as they took another stride towards what looks increasingly likely to be a return to the Premier League.

“We need to be more clinical against these types of teams,” he said.

“You make one mistake and you pay for it, and we knew that. 

“Coventry are a very clinical team, they are strong at set-pieces. We had spells, but I don’t think there is much I can say when we lose the game 3-0.

“It’s about improving, we have to show we can compete against these kinds of teams and keep pushing ourselves.

“The path ahead cannot change, the mentality cannot change and the belief cannot change.

“We had chances in the first half, and again in the second half, and that is something we need to be better at.

“When we are in these games you have to be clinical, and it is clear we need to improve in this department.

“Small things matter a lot at this level, and this game just underlined that fact.”