Richards: We must be professional
Gary Richards insists Swansea City Under-23s must not take anything for granted when they lock horns with Hull City in the Premier League Cup this evening.
The young Swans travel to East Riding County FA for their penultimate Group E clash, which is LIVE on swanseacity.com from 7pm.
Having collected seven points from their opening four games, the development side will secure their place in the knockout stages providing they better Oxford United’s result against Wolves in the group’s other showdown this evening.
Meanwhile, Hull are already eliminated from the competition having registered just three points in five matches.
Nevertheless, Richards knows his side will have to be ready from the off to get the result they need.
“We’ve put ourselves in a decent position to qualify, but we still know that this game is going to be tough,” the under-23s coach said.
“It’s important that we are fully concentrated, ready and make sure we do ourselves justice.
“They will definitely want to win the match, so we must prepare properly and make sure that our performance levels are where we want them to be in order to get a positive result.”
The young Swans go into the game buoyed by their impressive 2-0 victory over Chelsea in Premier League 2 last weekend.
And Richards is hopeful the development side can use that as a springboard going into the final stretch of the season.
“We were really pleased with the result. They threw everything at us which is all we can ask for at this level,” he added.
“We think we’ve been quite unfortunate in recent weeks and felt like we’ve deserved more, so it was pleasing that we delivered another good performance and managed to get the win.
“Hopefully, we can build on that now. We’ve spoken a lot about making sure we have a good run-in towards the end of the season.
“It’s important that we finish as strong as we possibly can – starting with tonight’s game.”
Remember, you can follow the action as it unfolds this evening LIVE on swanseacity.com from 7pm.
