Filip Lissah | It's been a great journey, the players and staff should be proud

Swansea City Under-21s’ skipper Filip Lissah spoke of his pride in the development side's Nathaniel MG Cup journey, and praised the hard work of the players and staff in reaching the final of the competition.

The young Swans suffered a 5-1 defeat to an experienced The New Saints side as their excellent run in the tournament came to an end at Jenner Park on Saturday.

Close-range finishes from Ryan Brobbel and Josh Pask had the Cymru Premier side ahead at half-time, and they further stretched their lead early in the second half when Brad Young poked in from a cross.

But the Swans dug in and fashioned an excellent move which saw Ben Lloyd steer home when a Lincoln Mcfayden cross was not cleared.

However, TNS substitute Adrian Cieslewicz added a brace in the closing stages to bring to an end to an excellent first foray into a senior Welsh cup for the young Swans. 

It saw the under-21s’ conclude their cup campaign with a sense of disappointment at not securing the trophy, but Lissah believes there is plenty for the Swansea academy team to be proud of.

"It's been a good journey, and a good experience. We are disappointed to lose in the manner that we did, which I think doesn't fully reflect on how we played," said centre-back Lissah.

"We could have turned up better on the day but, in general, we achieved our goal of getting to the final, a goal we set out at the beginning of the season.

"We're definitely proud of ourselves for achieving that goal and the journey we've been on in reaching the final.

"All of the players and staff have worked so hard on and off the pitch and, ultimately, we did want to lift that trophy, but we knew TNS were going to go all out.

"We had a lot of good moments in the game, I thought Remy [Mitchell] made some great saves and we had some good chances. 

"We never felt we were truly out of it because we kept going, when Lloydy  [Ben Lloyd] got that goal back we pushed on, but in the final 20 minutes we couldn't capitalise on those openings."