Angry Russell Martin tells Swansea City players it's 'sink or swim time' as two strikers on brink of exit

Russell Martin blew up with his Swansea City players following their penalty shootout loss to Oxford United in the Carabao Cup.

The Swans were in complete control for much of the contest at the Kassam Stadium and led 2-0 thanks to goals from Jay Fulton and Liam Cullen. However, they conceded twice late on in the second half, with Alex Gorrin and Cameron Brannagan both netting to force the first round contest into spot-kicks.

And Matty Sorinola was the unfortunate Swansea man to miss from 12 yards out as Karl Robinson's men progressed into the second round - leaving Martin's troops without a win following their opening three games of the campaign in the process.

Oxford United 2-2 Swansea City: Hosts win 5-3 on penalties as Russell Martin's men crash out of Carabao Cup

Martin made four changes on the hour mark, and the vast number of alterations significantly disrupted the flow of the match. And the head coach says his players never should have allowed The U's back into the contest following a dominant performance for two-thirds of the fixture.

"The subs should not change the game as much as it did, for sure," said Martin. "We should be here talking about debuts, Azeem [Abdulai], Joel Cotterill, Joe [Allen] coming back, some really great performances, Ollie Cooper, but Ryan Manning, Jay Fulton, Joel Latibeaudiere and Harry Darling coming off, it really hurt us, and it shouldn't hurt us that much.

"Even then they didn't create that much. The goal was pathetic. And then, you're in a wall, just be brave. How it descended into that I just don't know.

"What they've done is left us open to criticism on our mentality and that stuff. What I would point to is the changes. We had such a young team on the pitch at the end, but even