Sousa looks for Swansea reaction

Last updated : 24 March 2010 By BBC Sport

Swansea City manager Paulo Sousa says he is looking for a reaction from his players after their shock 5-1 defeat at Blackpool on Tuesday.The Swans went into the game with the Championship's best defence, but it was ripped apart as they slumped to their heaviest loss of the season.

But despite the result, they stay in the play-offs, seven points ahead of Blackpool who sit just outside.

"My players understand what can happen in football on a bad day," said Sousa.

"The good thing of life and football is you have another day and another game and on Saturday, we can rectify everything [against Roy Keane's struggling Ipswich].

"We can show a great reaction and this is what I expect from my players."

Swansea had only conceded 26 goals all season before the trip to Bloomfield Road.

It was the first time the Swans have lost by a four-goal margin since the 4-0 defeat at Reading in September 2008.

And Blackpool were also the last team to put more than five goals past them, when they won 6-3 at the Liberty Stadium in May 2007.

Despite holding on to a relatively healthy play-off place, the Swans have now only won once in the last six games.

They have looked tired of late and have found goals even more increasingly hard to come by, with just 33 scored all season.

And Sousa has also had to bring in defensive cover in the form of Burnley's David Edgar to ease their injury problems with captain Garry Monk, Fede Bessone and Albert Serran out, while Alan Tate is playing through the pain barrier.

But the Portuguese manager did not blame that on the defeat.

"Everything came good for Blackpool," he said.

"They went ahead and then scored at the end of the first half when we were dominating, and then again at the beginning of the second half they scored.

"Every time we came close to scoring, they scored and some of them were great goals.

"Blackpool also settled much better on the pitch because they are used to it, while we struggled a little bit."

The defeat means Swansea have won only once at Bloomfield Road in 21 league visits spanning 84 years.

Source: BBC Sport

Source: BBC Sport