Russell Martin | We were flat in the second half

Russell Martin was left to rue a disappointing second-half display as Swansea City missed out on the chance to record a fifth home win in succession against Blackpool.

The Swans had held the lead thanks to Joel Piroe’s 11th goal of the season, the Dutchman rewarding a dominant first half by firing an unstoppable effort into the top corner from the edge of the area.

But Blackpool grew into the game after the interval, and snatched a share of the spoils when Keshi Anderson turned home in the 86th minute after Ben Hamer’s punch had come straight to him.

And the Swans head coach acknowledged the emotion would have been one of relief as he felt the hosts had dropped off in energy and intensity as the contest went on.

“We would have been relieved if we had got there, I think,” said Martin.

“We were really disappointed with the second half.

“In the first half I thought we were really good against a very aggressive press. They were really well organised and you could see why they have such good away form.

“I thought we would weather the storm for that 10 or 15 minutes and come out with a bit more energy, but we did not do enough in that period to have any control.

“We played some great stuff through the press and gave the ball up way too easy, we tried to force things and got a bit anxious I think.

“The best thing about the first goal was the patience we showed, we had a lot of passes before the goal.

“We gave Joel the time and space to do what he did, but it felt a little flat after that.

“We should have had two penalties which would have changed the game, but I don’t want to blame the referee for drawing the game. We conceded a really poor goal, and that’s not on him, that’s on us.

“It was really frustrating second half, it feels like we have lost even though we haven’t.

“But we have to be better, the game swung completely the other way in the second half and that should not happen.

“They had far too much ball and we did not have enough energy and intensity, and as a coaching group I think we have to take responsibility for that and maybe we worked the guys too hard this last couple of weeks.

“It was the last chance we had to put some work into them and we might have gone too far as we lacked energy today.

“But we have a point, we are unbeaten in a long time at home and we have a chance to put things right on Wednesday.”