Luke Williams | We made a sluggish start and paid for it

Head coach Luke Williams admitted Swansea City had paid for a sluggish start as they suffered defeat at Middlesbrough on the opening day of the Championship season.

Emmanuel Latte Lath’s first-half penalty, after Azeem Abdulai had brought down Isaiah Jones in the area, proved enough to settle the contest at the Riverside Stadium.

Jones had chances to extend the home side’s lead, but Swansea improved after the break and had control for long periods of the second half.

But they were unable to craft any clear-cut opportunities until a flurry during the final minutes.

And Williams pulled no punches in his assessment.

“I think we started the game really poorly and it really got away from us in that period,” he said. 

“We did not really get a foothold until we had given away the penalty, then we tried to control the game more but there were still too many openings for the opposition.

“They were value for the win today. I am disappointed, but we have a long way to go.

“We were better in the second half and if it had been 0-0 and we start to dominate the game and control the game it is a different feeling.

“But we were chasing the game and we did not create enough clear-cut openings at all, and they still managed to hit us on the break.

“There are plenty of things we need to improve.”

Williams also thanked the more than 500 travelling Jacks who made the journey to Teesside, with many having departed the Swansea.com Stadium at 4am on Saturday morning on the official supporter coaches to cheer on their side.

“It breaks me when we see them at the end of a game and we have not given them a performance,” he added.

“We did not give them enough excitement and enough for them to cheer.

“We blanked today, and it’s an incredible effort from them and we truly appreciate that.”