Conceding poor goals so costly – Cooper
STEVE Cooper admits Swansea City’s poor defending ultimately proved costly as they were dumped out of the Championship play-offs by Brentford.
The Swans went into the second leg at Griffin Park with a 1-0 lead, although that was quickly turned around by the Bees who went 3-1 up in the tie thanks to goals from Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Marcondes and Bryan Mbeumo.
Rhian Brewster set-up a tense finish with what was his 11th goal for Swansea late on.
But the away side had left themselves with too much to do as their promotion dream was brought to an end in London.
And Cooper says his side shot themselves in the foot with their defensive efforts against Thomas Frank’s outfit.
Such was the disappointment with the first half performance, Cooper hauled off defender Mike van der Hoorn and midfielder Jay Fulton, replacing them with Ben Cabango and Yan Dhanda at the break.
“We gave ourselves too much to do, we did not play well enough in the first half and were not aggressive enough in our play, with and without the ball,” said the Swans boss.
“We ended up being too deep and we left too much space and allowed them opportunities to attack.
“The goals are really disappointing. The first is from our free-kick and the second and third ones - they are good finishes - but you cannot leave people unmarked in the box like that.
“We did not give up. We went right to the end, but we gave ourselves too much to do.
“We changed some of the personnel at half-time to try and get some impetus, but then we go and concede and you cannot do that. It was the killer blow.”
And while the Swans did make a fist of things in the final half hour at Griffin Park, Cooper conceded that the damage had long been done as the away side went in search of late goals.
“I did think we would score and create chances, and we did. We got into good areas and got a lifeline through Rhian,” he added.
“But we conceded poor goals and it cost us.”