'We are humble - we aim to improve'

Graham Potter reckons his developing side must taste the lows if they are to savour the highs at Swansea City.

The Swans face a tricky trip to Derby County this weekend having suffered back-to-back home defeats for the first time since Potter took charge in the summer.

Defensive sloppiness cost the Swans dear as they were beaten 4-1 by Norwich last weekend.

And despite taking the lead through Oli McBurnie, they lost again against West Brom on Wednesday night after twice conceding at set-pieces.

But despite the disappointment of what so far has been a fruitless week, Potter is looking forward with optimism.

“We have to start the recovery process today and then focus on the Derby game,” said the Swans manager.

“I hope we are humble enough to understand that we can lose football matches in the Championship when we are at our stage.

“That’s certainly where I’m at.

“We would love to win every game we play – it would be a lot easier for me to sit here and talk about a win every week.

“But I firmly believe that you have to go through a bit of hardship in football to improve and get better.

“I know the supporters want to see success, of course they do.

“But I think you do have to suffer a bit in order to get better.

“We are at the start of a process. We have to make sure we are competitive in every game and we did that again against a good West Brom side.

“For large parts of the game we were the better team, but a couple of little things went against us and also our own deficiencies at set-pieces caused us problems.

“But we did a lot of things well and I believe there is a decent foundation there. Now we all want to improve – that is our aim.”

The Swans are down to 11th in the Championship table following successive reverses.

They are five points adrift of the play-off places and nine clear of the bottom three.

But as has been the case throughout 2018-19, Potter insists he is unconcerned about his team’s league position.

“I said before the Norwich game that this would be an exciting week for us and it still is,” he added.

“We have a chance to go to Derby and to try to put in a good performance and get three points.

“That’s what we will aim to do.

“We have lost a couple of games this week, but we have learned a lot about ourselves and we need to use that in a positive way.

“We are not about to crawl under a rock and give up. We are here to fight and do our best and that’s what we’ll do.”