Steve Cooper urges Swansea to be more clinical despite win over Wycombe

Posted Saturday, September 26, 2020 by PA

Steve Cooper still wants to see a more clinical edge from his Swansea side despite Andre Ayew and Jamal Lowe ensuring they cruised to a 2-0 victory away to Wycombe.

The Swans had scored just one goal in their opening three league and cup matches this season but grabbed two in the first 25 minutes at Adams Park.

Ayew slid home Jake Bidwell’s cross from close range after 13 minutes before turning provider as a neat passing move ended with him teeing up Lowe to tap in.

However, Swansea spurned chances to put Wycombe away after the break and while Cooper was not turning his nose up at a victory on the road, he admits there is room for improvement.

“It’s always a good scoreline away from home. I thought we played some excellent football in the first half,” said the Swans boss.

“The only challenge is that we should have scored a few more for all the good play that we did.

“Second half we really wanted to go out and kill the game, because we felt there were more goals out there.

“I felt this result was coming. There was a real hunger to create and score because we fell a bit short last week. Fortunately, that ended up being the case.”

Meanwhile, at the other end of the pitch, their defence looks almost impenetrable after a third consecutive Sky Bet Championship clean sheet, leaving Cooper ecstatic.

“It’s not just the back three and [goalkeeper] Freddie [Woodman] that are keeping the clean sheet, it’s the whole team,” he added. “Let’s not lose sight of that.

“Our positioning and decision-making is good with our defending and that’s pleasing, but the challenge now is to keep it going.

“We’ll focus on Millwall and we won’t look any further than that. There’s a long way to go in this league.”

Wycombe have been given a tough introduction to Championship life – becoming the first team since Colchester in 2006 to lose their first three games of a second-tier season.

Worryingly, the Chairboys have failed to score in any of those matches but boss Gareth Ainsworth saw some positive signs in the second half.

“We let them play too much of their own game in the first half and that killed us,” admitted Ainsworth. “We’ve got to eradicate the mistakes because they’re going to get punished at this level.

“But we improved no end in the second half – I hope people will see that and think maybe we’ll upset a few teams this year. It was much better, we had plenty of chances.

“Maybe we gave them too much respect in the first half; they’ll be top six, no doubt. But when we got amongst them we did much better.

“The goal is going to come soon and it’s a big improvement on last week [a 5-0 defeat to Blackburn]. I just said to the boys keep going, keep working. I’m sure we’re not far away from our first win.

“I want to work the Championship out in the first few games. Work out what teams will do to us, tactically how they play, and see my squad and see who’s up to Championship standard.

“It’s going to be a tough league. Your passes, touches, ball retention’s got to be superb as well as clinical finishes and decision-making.”