Russell Martin details key factor behind Swansea City’s collapse against Reading

Swansea City boss Russell Martin believes the fact his side let yesterday’s encounter with Reading turn into a ‘typical’ Championship game cost them as they collapsed from 4-1 to 4-4, speaking to the Swans’ media team after the match.

They suffered an early setback when Lucas Joao put the Royals 1-0 up at the Select Car Leasing Stadium in the third minute – but responded admirably with fine strikes from Hannes Wolf and Joel Piroe putting the visitors 2-1 up less than 10 minutes later with the latter’s penalty before half-time making the scoreline more comfortable for the Welsh side.

They all but sealed the points when Michael Obafemi finished off a well-worked move just before the hour mark, but Tom Ince’s goal three minutes later sparked a comeback from the hosts.

With Lucas Joao converting from close range and Tom McIntyre grabbing an equaliser in the fifth minute of stoppage time for the hosts, they consigned Derby County to the third tier of English football.

This was a blow for the Swans though who previously looked set to continue their impressive run of form, threatening to run away with the game at 4-1 but failing to defend adequately as the Royals pushed forward in search of a point.

Although Paul Ince’s side pressed well in the latter stages of the game, Martin believes his side’s downfall was of their own doing as they failed to see out the match.

He said: “We allowed the game to become a stereotypical Championship game really, and we aren’t very good at that. We’re not set-up to do that.

“If you allow the game to turn into that then you have to be willing to fight and defend the box properly. We didn’t.

“We had unbelievable chances to score another and put it to bed, we hit the bar and the post. The game