Swansea City boss Roberto Martinez said his side produced a performance ‘worthy of a win’ against Swindon yesterday, while his opposite number David Byrne said his team deserved a point.
Swansea City received a boost after just 19 minutes when the referee gave Barry Corr a straight red for violent conduct on Garry Monk.
Martinez made some surprising changes to his team. He reverted back to a 4-4-2 formation, dropped Andy Robinson and Leon Britton and brought Bauza back into the startling line-up along with Tom Butler and Kristian O’Leary.
The changes didn’t seem to work as despite playing against 10 men for 71 minutes, we struggled to make the breakthrough.
We did, finally, with just a few minutes remaining as Butler netted. Substitute Robinson nearly made it 2-0 but his shot hit the bar.
The referee then awarded a penalty deep into injury time after a challenge from Kristian O’Leary, Cox converted to share the points.
Roberto Martinez said his side were worthy of a win:
| ‘I feel for the players because they didn’t deserve that,’ ‘We found it hard in the first half with the way Swindon played, but we controlled the game from start to finish. ‘We showed patience to create chances and their keeper made some big save. ‘But the performance was of the level we expected, and if we do that on a regular basis then we’ll get the points. ‘It was always going to be hard for us because of the way they set out after the sending off,’ ‘The sending off really killed the game for both sides because they just had a reason to drop back and allow us to play. ‘It was a bit flat, but we were away from home and we were quite happy with that. ‘We knew we’d be able to impose ourselves in the second half and we created enough chances. ‘We got the goal and then Andy Robinson hit the crossbar, if that goes in it’s 2-0 and game over. ‘I don’t look at the run ending because the performance was good enough to get a win,’ ‘In my head it is another performance worthy of a win. We’ve taken a point and we’ll move on into the next game. ‘It’s important the players realise it was a performance of the standards that we expect. ‘It was our third game in six days and it came at a difficult place to play, but we showed our authority for the full 90 minutes and that was the most pleasing aspect. ‘Maybe it’s two points dropped, but I always look at performances and I was pleased with that. ‘In the course of a season you won’t perform to win a game, but you will, and hopefully this will level up because we were worthy of winning this game.’ |
Swindon Town boss David Byrne thought his side deserved a point, he said:
| ‘We deserved the draw today because the players went out and did exactly what we asked them to do,’ ‘I didn’t see the incident where Barry Corr was sent off, but the referee says he ran his studs down the back of the lad’s leg.’ |
Swansea City have a break from League action this weekend as they face Havant & Waterlooville in the FA Cup third round at the Liberty Stadium.
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