Our men’s under-21s were beaten 3-1 by Swansea City in the Premier League Cup on Saturday.
Kristian Fletcher’s goal midway through the first half ensured the Swans went in at the break with the lead, but Shannon Ruth’s half-time triple substitution appeared to have the desired impact as Broady Peart came on to setup Mark O’Mahony for a tap in.
Despite taking control of proceedings, Albion struggled to make their dominance count and were harshly punished when an effort deflected in off defender Leigh Kavanagh with 12 minutes to play.
That appeared to take the wind out of Albion’s sails and Fletcher added to his team’s tally to put the game out of reach.
Under-21s head coach Shannon Ruth said, “It’s probably fair to say our third game in eight days took its toll on the group. We lacked intensity and energy from the start and struggled to get going. We still had a lot of the ball but didn’t use it as well as we have been recently.
“They scored a good goal and deserved their lead, but we responded in the right way after the break and scored a decent goal, but we didn’t make the most of our momentum and they scored a goal against the run of play.
“Overall it was a really good lesson for the players. They have to learn to be able to keep performing during a congested fixture period, when they’ve done a fair bit of travelling.”
The result sees Albion sit on a point after their first two games in the Premier League Cup, having drawn 2-2 in their opening match against Aston Villa.