Under-fire Swansea City head coach Alan Sheehan admitted his side were very much second best as they were soundly beaten 4-1 by the Blues at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Boos rang out at the final whistle as the defeat extended the Swans’ winless run to four matches with their only victory in their last seven Championship games a 2-1 home success over second-bottom, now-managerless Norwich City late last month. The Welshmen are now down to 18th.
"The first half was incredibly disappointing. We were nowhere near the level that we have been performance-wise,” Sheehan, who was appointed to his role in April following a spell as caretaker-boss, conceded.
"We turned the ball over a lot, we looked a bit anxious, we didn’t come out of duels. We were second best totally.
"We made a couple of changes at half-time and tried to be more aggressive in the right areas and we got a really well-worked goal.
"Then we turned the ball over again and conceded the next goal, then a set piece.
"We hit the post with ours [Christian Walton brilliantly pushing Swans’ skipper Ben Cabango’s header onto the woodwork] and they scored. You can’t give up these opportunities to teams like this.
"I know what my job is, I know what I have to do – we have to get wins, there is no two ways about that. But I believe I’m the man to take this club forward, of course I do.”
Regarding the boos, he added: "I understand the frustration everyone including the fans is feeling, we all watch the same game so I do understand it. We feel the same.
"I have had tough times in my career, I have been in the game a long time and I understand what we are trying to build but we also know the results are not what we want.”
The Irishman insists he’s still the man for the job: "Yes, I believe I am. Of course I do. I think anybody who’s at the training ground, the culture that we have, the environment.
"We've not had a lot of time on the grass with the players. I think we’ve got 12 guys going away now and we don’t see them until Thursday before Bristol City again.
"So we do want to tweak things of course. We want to evolve, we want to individually develop the players that we have brought in. We try to give them the right amount of minutes to make that impetus to play regularly.
"Today’s a disappointing day and no matter what I say it’s not going to turn anybody’s opinion. We had a game today where we didn't show up to the level at all.
"Then second half, we give ourselves an opportunity and then concede by giving the ball away and we’re giving ourselves a lot to do in games.”
He added: "I understand the fans’ frustration in terms of this is my first time in management, so I’ve got no experience of turning things around and this is the first time as a manager when we haven’t been winning regularly.
"There’s no actual proven methodology if you want to say that ‘he’s going to definitely turn around he’s done it before’.
"But I can tell you that we are going to be a good team. I do believe that and sometimes the difference is goals.
"We need to get to a place where we are incredibly aggressive in both boxes and have that belief to go and finish teams off because, in terms of box to box, at times we are quite comfortable in games but then it’s the next level.
"I know what my job is, I know what I have to do – we have to get wins, there is no two ways about that.”