Anthony Wright pleased to kick season off on the front foot

12th August
Academy
Anthony Wright

Coach Anthony Wright was pleased to see Swansea City Under-21s get their Professional Development League season off to an ideal start with a dominant win over Crewe Alexandra.

The young Swans - who finished second in the PDL South last season - scored four second-half goals as they eased to victory at Landore.

Glory Nzingo netted a 15-minute hat-trick, with last term's under-18s' topscorer Thomas Woodward also getting on the scoresheet for the hosts. 

"I'm really pleased with the performance. We had a lot of control in the first half," said Wright.

"If I'm being a little critical of the first half, we could have had three or four goals, and we came in 0-0 at half time.

"There was a real difference in the second half, we got four good goals. We know Glory can score, I'm really pleased for him.

"He's played in a different position, as a false nine, and he's got his rewards. Each goal was a different finish, and they were really good finishes as well.

"We changed shape in the second half, just to play around them a bit quicker and I think that had a slight effect on what we were doing, and made sure we were on the front foot.

"Starting on the front foot always gets the confidence up, with a clean sheet on top of that, and we'll keep the momentum going when we travel to Fleetwood next week."

Wright also praised the impact of the first and second-year scholars who were involved. 

Jacob Cook, Iestyn Jones and Woodward were named in the starting XI. Ramon Rees-Siso, Callum Deacon, Milo Robinson and Billy Clarke - who were all involved in the under-18s' victory over Barnsley at the weekend - were named among the substitutes.

"It's a real learning group this season, as we'll be much younger than last season," added Wright.

"It was brilliant that we had three scholars start, and they all did really well, and it was an added bonus that Woody [Thomas Woodward] got another goal.

"We finished with six scholars on the pitch, which is terrific, it was a real team effort."