Nia Jones | The biggest emotion after the game was pride

Defender Nia Jones believes Swansea City Women should move forward with their heads held high and pride in their efforts after their agonising 1-0 defeat at The New Saints Women.

The Swans were beaten at the last by a Lexi Jones goal, having played the majority of the game with defender Jones in goal.

The enforced change happened when goalkeeper Charlie Haynes suffered a concussion and was forced from the field.

The reshuffled Swans - who were without a host of players due to injury and other availability issues - battled bravely and looked set to leave with a clean sheet and a point, until conceding the 91st minute winner.

Nevertheless, Jones was proud of the efforts of the entire squad, with many having to play out of position throughout the game, and the former Wales netball captain had no doubts she would be stepping between the sticks when it became clear Haynes could not continue.

“We’d half joked about who would go in goal in training last week, we were all well aware we didn’t have a goalkeeper on the bench” said Jones.

“Obviously given my background in netball, I was happy to volunteer. It did mean we had to totally reshuffle, so it’s not just settling someone who hasn’t played between the sticks before, it also forces other players to play out of position.

“I don’t remember having many shots to save until that goal happened, which is a credit to the team.

“They congested the middle areas and blocked anything that was coming their way, so it restricted them to lots of crosses which we dealt with really well.

“We just probably dropped a little too deep in those closing stages and weren’t able to close the ball, but overall, everyone who travelled should be super proud.

“The manner of the defeat really stings, you cast your mind back to a couple of occasions where we could have just kept the ball for a little bit longer or managed the game a little bit better, because it became increasingly evident that with our depleted squad a point might be a good result for us.

“We worked so hard for each other, the biggest emotion after the game was pride for the effort that everyone put in.

“We had some players really out on their feet who haven’t had 90 minutes for us in a fair few weeks, it was pretty heroic energy levels from them to keep going.

“Some players played a few more minutes then the medical team would have probably liked, it was a challenge we probably didn’t foresee so early in the game, but I think everyone coped really well with it.”