ANTHONY WRIGHT | WE ARE DISAPPOINTED, BUT THE PLAYERS

Despite the disappointment of watching the Swansea City Under-21 team’s season end with a 4-2 Professional Development League play-off loss against Sheffield United, coach Anthony Wright commended the amazing efforts of the team.

The development team had advanced to the Nathanial MG Cup final earlier in the season, and they were making their first appearance in the play-offs in eight years.

But goals from Jay Tinsdale and Louie Marsh gave the Blades the upper hand in the Bramall Lane semi-final.

Before Thomas Woodward’s late consolation, Sam Aston and Zain Tahir put the result beyond doubt with a brilliant goal from Glory Nzingo.

Wright acknowledged that Swansea hasn’t played to their full potential, but he urged the players to take pride in their accomplishments during the 2023–24 campaign.

“Even though we are sad, we must look back on the season as a whole this year, and I think the boys have been fantastic,” Wright stated.

This was our 43rd game of the year; we have a small number of players and a long season.

We’ve occasionally pushed the lads to their absolute limits, advanced to the senior men’s competition cup final, advanced to the Premier League Cup knockout stage in a category one tournament, and missed the playoffs for eight years.

That demonstrates the calibre of play that the players have been at. I have told the youngsters that while we will all be disappointed in the actual performance, we cannot be dissatisfied about the season.

“We have a really disappointed changing room because we haven’t performed to the level we know we can on this occasion.

In retrospect, we realise that we simply didn’t play to our full potential throughout the match. We made poor choices, let the opposition control us, knowing what they had in store, and regrettably, we fell into their trap.

“We lost the game and the group because we made too many individual mistakes.”

Wright also used the occasion to express his gratitude to the players who would be departing the team at the end of the current season and to highlight their work ethic and attitude throughout a trying period.

“We’ve had a group of players for the last six weeks, and every single one of them has stuck to their task, shown they are incredible human beings, and given everything to get us in this position. Some of those players have even been told they won’t be with us next season,” he continued.

“We are grateful to them because they have raised the bar for this next group to succeed in the upcoming season.

“As a team, we start over from scratch and welcome a new group of players who will be much younger, so we look forward to that challenge.”