Vitor Matos | We need to grab games from the start
Head coach Vitor Matos has challenged Swansea City to take games by the scruff of the neck from the off after seeing a late fightback come up short in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Stoke City.
The Swans grew into the game and had the better of the opening half – with Zan Vipotnik and Cameron Burgess having chances – but trailed at the interval thanks to Ben Pearson’s stunning strike for the hosts.
Sorba Thomas doubled Stoke’s advantage early in the second half but the Swans dominated the closing stages.
They got a goal back when two lovely passes from Ethan Galbraith and Melker Widell teed up Zan Vipotnik for his 10th goal of the season.
Swansea pressed and pressed for an equaliser, with Stoke keeper Viktor Johansson twice denying Zeidane Inoussa, but they were unable to salvage a point late on.
Matos was pleased with how his side played in periods of the game, but says the challenge for them is to show the aggression and intensity they finished the game with from the off.
“I think there is a lot we can take from the game, we grew into the game and that was a target for us,” he said.
“We know Stoke has been one of the best teams in the division this year and they would be looking to react (after a difficult run).
“We wanted to try and grab the game for us in terms of dominance and I think that is the next step we need to have. We need to be able to do that against any team.
“We suffered, but we also created chances at 0-0 and 1-0. In the second half we made changes and they scored almost immediately when we did that.
“From there we grew into the game again and we felt we could get the two goals. We scored the one and we had this feeling we could get something.
“The character to show we were willing to keep going was important.
“I have said from the beginning it will be a process, it will take time, and with this comes ups and downs.
“We are seeing the dominance and the aggression, now we need to grow that more consistently and understand that when we come to these places we need to grab the game from the beginning and not wait for the game to come to us.”