Carl Rushworth | We can take positives from the second-half performance

Swansea City goalkeeper Carl Rushworth believes there are positives to take from the second-half performance against Southampton, after admitting the squad's frustration with their first-half showing against the Saints.

Rushworth made a series of good stops in the first half as the Swans were put under a lot of pressure by an in-form Southampton side. The pick of which was a double save to deny Adam Armstrong on the 12th minute when a goal had looked a certainty.

But he could do nothing about strikes from Flynn Downes and Will Smallbone, while Rushworth's frustration lay primarily in the opening goal which saw Che Adams tap into an empty net after the young shot-stopper initially saved from Stuart Armstrong.

“It’s a frustrating one. When you come up against a good team, it’s tough but we know we could have been better,” he said.

“I’d rather make no saves and keep a clean sheet, but it’s frustrating because some of the saves I made fell to them.

“So, for their first goal, I make the save and it falls to them and goes in. They were punishing us in the first half, they’re a good quality side, but I try to do my job as well as I can and then it’s about converting the chances at the other end.

“The first half was very frustrating and for them to score straight after we did killed us.

“The words of the gaffer at half-time helped us massively and we understood what we needed to do.

“He said we needed to start taking the game to them, so we needed to start the game how we actually started in the second half. We need to make it a 90-minute performance, but there were so many chances in the second half and it’s just about converting those.

“You could see in the second half that it actually could have ended in a draw, especially If we’d gone into the second half at 2-1. It would have been completely different.

“I think there were a lot of positives to take from the second half. We’ve got a tough run of games coming up and hopefully, with us working hard on the training ground and ironing out the negatives, we’ll start picking up some points.”

With the score 3-1 at half time, Rushworth was also pleased with the character on display from the Swans to keep a clean sheet in the second period, particularly given they had conceded four second-half goals in the reverse fixture a month ago.

“I think in the second half, the lads dug in,” he added.

“We knew we had nothing to lose, but the players were calm. They were good with their press, but we were able to overcome that.

“The character was massive, and that’s something the gaffer is bringing in as well.”