Swansea City slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Reading in the first of three fixtures over the festive period.
Russell Martin had spoken in the build-up to the game of the need not to concede the first goal, and not to concede from set-pieces, but Reading opened the scoring from a free-kick, as the Swans nemesis Andy Carroll fired home after Steven Benda’s punched clearance.
Things could have been worse for the visitors before half-time, but Yakou Meite missed a penalty for the Royals, after Jay Fulton had fouled Andy Carroll from a corner.
Despite the Swans starting the second half brightly, Tom Ince doubled the home side’s lead, after the Swans had given the ball away on the edge of their own area.
Substitute Liam Cullen did pull one back for the Swans on 71 minutes, but despite controlling the remainder of the game, the Swans couldn’t find the all important equaliser.
The defeat means the Swans are now without a league win in 8 games – the last one being the 2-0 win over Cardiff in October.
Speaking after the match, Russell Martin was clearly left frustrated by his team’s performance once again.
They [Reading] have experience in the team, physicality, and they showed a mentality in both boxes that we don’t have at the minute.
That is why we are where we are in the league. We don’t put points on the board. We function so well between the boxes, but we have a real problem with the mentality in our box because we do not give up a massive amount of chances but we are conceding from those situations too often.
The goals we concede are hurtful, they are poor. We don’t make teams work for their goals when we have to work so hard to break teams down.
Russell Martin
The 1,942 Jacks at Reading will have been bitterly disappointed with how the team played and many will no doubt be starting to lose patience with the manner in which the Swans are conceding goals.
Martin reacts to Reading defeat
Here is what Russell Martin had to say in his post-match press conference after the lost at the Select Car Leasing stadium.
Feature Image Credit: Swansea City Football Club