Sheffield Wednesday 3 Swansea City 1
Graham Potter branded his Swansea City side ‘soft’ as their chances of challenging for the play-offs suffered a major blow at Sheffield Wednesday.
The Swans paid for some poor defending as the Owls hit them for three goals in the first-half.
Adam Reach struck a double – the second after Declan John’s woeful attempted clearance – with Steven Fletcher netting with a spectacular overhead kick.
Wayne Routledge – who came on as a half-time sub for John – pulled a goal back on 69 minutes.
And Potter’s side had further chances to possibly snatch an improbable draw but they lost on their travels for the third game in a row.
Potter said: “We looked a little bit soft and we sort of gift them stuff. It’s hard enough against teams without contributing yourself to their performances.”
“That’s the thing we have to learn. We have to learn how we can be ourselves, in the environment and manage the game a bit better and we probably didn’t do that as well as we’d like in the first half is the reality.
“From our perspective we’re disappointed with our first half of course.
“We weren’t at the level that we need to be that’s for sure.
“Having said that we had a couple of good chances as well, but we probably contributed to our own downfall. That’s a learning point for us, we have to be better at that.
“At half time you’re looking for a response and looking for something better and I thought we had that.
“We had some good chances to make it 3-2 and then you never know but in the end you can’t do what we did in the first half and expect to get anything.
“When the scoreline went against us, we turned things down, we didn’t play forward and we didn’t play positively.
“So it was a painful first 45 minutes for us and all I can say is the second half was a lot better.
“When you look at the chances overall in the game, we were in it.
“But at the same time you can’t give the type of goals away we did and the performance level of the first half and say you deserve anything from the game.”
Potter’s side have not won away from home since the 4-1 victory at Reading on New Year’s Day suffering successive defeats to Bristol City, Leeds United and now Wednesday.
The gap to sixth place is now nine points – probably too big a margin with games running out.
Reach struck twice in the first 20 minutes – the first with a clinical curling finish before he took advantage of left-back John’s poor clearance from a Rolando Aarons cross.
Fletcher added a crucial third just before the interval again after the Swans defence failed to clear a corner properly.
Routledge pulled a goal back with a deflected shot after Connor Roberts picked him out in the box.
And Bersant Celina, sub Courtney Baker-Richardson and Daniel James all went close to adding a second which could have made the final few minutes interesting.
