COOPER WANTS SWANS TO SHOW CLINICAL EDGE

STEVE Cooper admits Swansea City need to improve in the final third when they take on Barnsley in the Championship play-offs after losing 2-0 at Watford yesterday in their final regular season game in the Championship.

The Swans looked lively in attack for long periods at Vicarage Road but failed to find a way beyond Ben Foster.

They were undone by secondhalf goals from Andre Gray and Isaac Success.

However, it proved to be a hugely valuable exercise for Swansea ahead of the first leg of their semifinal clash with Barnsley at Oakwell on May 17.

Cooper says he was pleased with his side’s performance against Xisco Munoz’s promoted side, although he admits his players need to be sharper in front of goal.

“Congratulations to Watford, they’ve done brilliantly this year,” he said.

“I didn’t think we deserved to lose the game, but at the same we didn’t do enough to win it.

“The performance was good, we got into loads of great positions to threaten the goal, and we didn’t and they did with the two goals, and that ended up being the difference in the result.

“I’ve just said to the players, I liked so many parts of the performance, apart from the final bit and often the most important bit. The stats behind the game show that.

“It’s something to focus on going into a couple of big games in the semi-finals.

“There were some planned changes as well that we wouldn’t normally make and it was a bit of a difficult one for the players knowing that they didn’t want to run the risk of getting a red card or even an injury.

“I thought it was a good game. I really liked our performance but we have to be more clinical.”

Barnsley’s 2-2 draw with champions Norwich City on the final day ensured they rose above Bournemouth into fifth after the Cherries lost 2-0 at home to Stoke City. They now face Brentford, who finished third.

Swansea did the double over Valerien Ismael’s side this season having beaten the Tykes 2-0 in both meetings between the teams.

However, Cooper believes Barnsley’s form in 2021 ensures they can’t be taken lightly in the play-offs.

“I’m not going to contradict last week about nothing really mattering in terms of who you play and where you play and guaranteeing the result that you want which is getting to the final,” he explained.

“We’ll take it as it comes. Is it an advantage to play at home in the second game? We’ve got to make sure we approach the first game right, get the work done on the training ground and let’s just look at that game first and get ready for it.

“We’ve been to Barnsley, as everybody else has this year, and they deserve a lot of credit for being where they are and for the second half of the season they’ve had.

“It’ll be a really tough game. We know how hard it’s been to get into these play-offs in these current circumstances and scheduling.”