Swansea City captaincy a "massive honour" for Flynn Downes

Flynn Downes reflected on a “massive honour” after he wore the captain’s armband for the first time at Swansea City.

Downes, a summer signing from Ipswich Town, was entrusted with the captaincy by Russell Martin for the FA Cup tie with Southampton, which ended in a 3-2 defeat in SA1.

The 22-year-old led by example in a side that also contained senior figures such as Korey Smith, Kyle Naughton and Ryan Bennett.

And the midfielder, who had also previously captained Ipswich despite his tender years, revealed Martin’s trust in him meant a lot.

“After I get over the disappointment of the defeat, I will look back at this as a massive moment for me,” he said.

“The gaffer put his trust in me, but I’ll leave it to the main man Grimesy – he’s the super skipper here.

“I love it. Off the pitch I’m not the loudest, but when I’m on the pitch I like to lead by example.

“It’s a massive honour.”

The Swans trailed to Nathan Redmond’s early strike, but Yan Valery’s dismissal for two bookings after 30 minutes gave them plenty of hope.

Joel Piroe’s 13th goal of the season with 12 minutes to go forced extra-time, and when Jan Bednarek turned in sub Olivier Ntcham’s cross it looked like the Swans were heading towards the fourth round.

However, Mohamed Elyounoussi levelled a minute later for the 10 men before Shane Long forced a winner for the visitors to end the Swans’ FA Cup hopes.

And Flynn admitted the manner of the defeat was hugely frustrating.

“It’s a tough one to take,” he added. “They had gone down to 10 men and when we find ourselves 2-1 up, we took our foot off the gas straight away. Against a Premier League side, you can’t do that and it cost us.

“It was a tough game because a lot of the boys had been struggling with Covid, but we really should have seen the game out.”