Luke Williams admits he gave his Swansea players “the hairdryer treatment” during their 2-2 draw against struggling Portsmouth.
Matt Ritchie and Josh Murphy had given the visitors a two-goal advantage before Myles Peart-Harris harried Connor Ogilvie enough at the far post to force the ball over the line just before the break.
Swansea, after some strong Williams words at half-time, then had a Liam Cullen goal in the 53rd minute to level before wasting a number of chances to take the three points.
“I’m annoyed more than frustrated. I’m annoyed because we didn’t start the game correctly,” said Swansea boss Williams.
“If we’d played well for 90 minutes but we hit the woodwork and the keeper made a save, I’d be frustrated. But I’m annoyed that we gave ourselves a mountain to climb because we didn’t approach the game correctly.
“I wish I knew what was wrong. We were at home, there was a really good buzz around the stadium, the surface was good enough for us to play how we want to play and we had a good mentality and good spirit. So, I don’t understand this one.
“I loved the way they roared back into the game in the second half. I give a lot of praise to the players for that because they showed the desire to make right what they struggled with in the first 45 minutes.
“They got forward in numbers and made a lot of box entries. But the moral of the story is don’t be two goals down.
“There was a break in play and I gave them some choice words and then they got a bit of the hairdryer treatment at half-time, along with a bit of good cop.
“They will get to watch that on Monday and hear me tell them things I’ve told them 1,000 times, but I loved the way they came roaring back in the second half.”
Having had their game at Blackburn last weekend washed out by Storm Bert, and then their midweek home match against Millwall called off due to floodlight failure, it was a first outing in three weeks for Pompey.
“We came away with a point and we get to go again next week. We were excellent in the first half, frustrated them and scored a couple of goals,” said Pompey boss John Mousinho.
“We deserved the lead going into the break, but I was frustrated it was 2-1 rather than 2-0.
“I was frustrated at the way they got their goal just before the break and it made a big difference going in without a two-goal lead – it was a terrible time to concede.
“The second half was a different game. They scored and we struggled to get to grips with the game.”
