Darren Davies | No excuses, we'll strive to be better

Swansea City Under-18s’ coach Darren Davies admitted there were no excuses for his side’s performance after they fell to a 3-0 defeat against Millwall on Saturday.

The Lions opened the scoring with seconds of the kick-off, Jack Howland heading home, and two further two goals followed in quick succession as Frankie Baker and Joshua Stephenson also found the net.

The Swans battled gamely after the break, but there was to be no way back into the contest for the visitors.

Davies acknowledged the Swans were not helped by player absences during a week of disrupted preparations but insists there is no excuse for the manner of the showing against the Lions.

“We started the game poorly. We’ve had a bit of a disrupted week with the boys away on international duty, which is fantastic for them, we’re so proud of them," said Davies. 

“We’ve also had a bout with illness amongst the squad, and all those things contributed to a slow start. But I just spoke to the boys, and it’s a different learning moment up here. 

“We spoke about tactics and mentality at half-time. In the second half I thought we were good, unfortunately the game was dead and buried as far as the result was concerned. 

“But believe it or not, I was actually pleased with the boys’ performance in the second-half. We tried getting it down and we tried playing. 

“We stuck to our principles, and I just said to them that we can’t afford to start in the fashion that we did. 

“Ultimately in football, there are no excuses. But we’ve had boys out this week who then went on to play 90 minutes, so preparation has been disrupted. 

“There are no excuses, but it did show within the first 30 minutes, and we spoke about that at half-time and the boys came out with that mentality after the break."