Anthony Wright | We played some great stuff, but there’s plenty we can improve

Coach Anthony Wright praised his Swansea City Under-21 side for an excellent first-half display in their 4-0 victory over Watford, but reminded them the second half showed there is also plenty to work on.

There were two goals in each half for the hosts with Kian Jenkins and Tarrelle Whittaker putting the hosts in control at Landore, before Cameron Congreve and Joe Thomas rounded off the scoring in the Professional Development League fixture.

The young Swans made it two wins and two clean sheets within the space of four days, with their previous win coming against Millwall on Monday afternoon. 

“From a result point of view, we’re really pleased for the players and it’s a clean sheet, which is important to us and our development," said Wright.

“From a performance side, we as coaches thought they could have done better. I think for 40 minutes we were excellent. 

“They did everything the right way; they moved the ball the right way and they connected well together all over the pitch. 

“We stuck to our principles in possession, and we were so dominant, they found it difficult because we locked into deep territory where they found it hard to get out when they had the ball. 

“For the first half, I thought our levels were exceptional. A frustrating thing for us as coaches and a group is that we then allowed our levels to drop. In the second half, they pressed us a little bit higher up the pitch. 

Eighteen-year-old Jenkins started his first competitive match for just over two years, after suffering a serious ACL injury in 2020. The left-back scored within 120 seconds of the opening whistle, with Whittaker teeing up the youngster from 20 yards to drill a right-footed effort into the bottom corner of the net. 

“We’ve scored four very good goals today, super goals. Kian Jenkins had his first start back in a long time, and he scored a brilliant goal. We’re all over the moon for him," added Wright.

“As development coaches and with the environment we work in, we’ve always said that win, lose, or draw, it’s never about the result.

“There are a lot of positives, and when we come away, we’ll look at them collectively together, but from today’s performance we can definitely improve on units, as a team and individually."