Saturday, August 22, 2015

Swansea did enough to beat Sunderland - Monk

Swansea City manager Garry Monk felt his side did "more than enough" to beat Sunderland, though they were held to a 1-1 draw at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Bafetimbi Gomis put the Swans in front on the stroke of half-time and Andre Ayew almost doubled the advantage when he headed against the left-hand post early in the second half.

Jermain Defoe found a gap in the Swansea defence to steal in with a neat finish and equalise shortly after the hour mark, and Costel Pantilimon chipped in with a string of impressive saves to protect the point for Sunderland, much to Monk's dismay.

"Slightly disappointed just because we knew that Sunderland would have a reaction today," said Monk, referring to Sunderland's dismal start to the new season. "I think that was clear from what people were talking about in the week.

"It was never going to be the case that we'd come up here and they'd roll over. I think you saw that in the first 20-30 minutes from them - the crowd were incredible for them in that period.

"After that first 30 minutes, we talked about being patient as a group and that we'd have to get through that period and then try and get control of the game.

"I think we did in the last 10 or 15 minutes of the first half and got a good goal. Coming in at half-time that's the position you want to be in.

"I talked to them about the control that we had in that period and that we needed to sustain it and start well with it in the second half and we did.

"That first 20 minutes of the second half it was dominance. We were creating chance after chance and that's what cost us today - we were so dominant during that period that, due to some good goalkeeping from the Sunderland goalkeeper and some less clinical finishing from us, we really should have put the game to bed.

"It wasn't to be and then we made that individual mistake that ultimately cost us a goal.

"We're disappointed in a way but, of course, there are lots of positives.

"We did more than enough to win that game today."

No comments:

Post a Comment