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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ian Mitchelmore

Russell Martin's post-Sheffield United dressing room words as Swansea City boss opens up on Luke Williams exit

Russell Martin was left angered after Swansea City made costly mistakes early on during their 4-0 loss to Sheffield United.

The visitors were put to the sword by the Blades at Bramall Lane, with former Swan Morgan Gibbs-White netting twice in a dazzling display for Paul Heckingbottom's outfit.

It was Swansea's third away defeat in a row - with Martin's side conceding nine goals in that run.

"I feel sorry for the fans that have travelled in difficult circumstances. They deserve better than what we're giving them away from home at the moment," he said.

"We made the same mistakes again. We started so poorly. The game's over after 20 minutes.

"The thing that frustrated me is, we have a lot of young men who are in the process of growing and learning, but we aren't learning quick enough, away from home especially.

"The gap between us at our best and our worst is far too big. The gap between us at home and away is far too big, and that's my fault, so we need to have a look at that.

"There's no ambiguity or grey area in what we do. We just spoke about it in there.

"I said to them, at times in my career, you're judged unfairly because there's not real clarity and there's loads of grey areas when you step on to the pitch.

"Here we have real clarity. A few details in the first 20 minutes in particular have totally cost us. The last 15 minutes of the first-half, the mentality was wrong, the body language, looking around at each other. We have to stick together much better than that."

READ MORE: The awful Swansea City player ratings as 'passenger' typifies blunt attack at Sheffield United

Prior to the contest in South Yorkshire, Swansea confirmed that assistant coach Luke Williams had left the club due to personal reasons.

And after his side's loss to the Blades, head coach Martin revealed Swansea could seek a replacement for 40-year-old.

"I'm sad about it. Luke's been brilliant for me in my first couple of seasons as a manager, really important in terms of the support he's given me as a friend," he said.

"We've had a few chats over the last few weeks. He has a very young family and he's been away a lot in the last three years.

"At MK Dons, he travelled there and stayed away three or four nights a week. We've sat down and had a chat about things and we've come to a decision that's best for him at the moment.

"Obviously I'm disappointed to lose him but we have some brilliant backroom staff that I think can fill the gaps.

"If we assess things over the next few weeks and feel a gap still needs filling then we will go and do that with a person we feel is right.

"I don't want to delve too deep into his personal reasons, but that's football and life. We move on."

Swansea return to action against Bournemouth on Tuesday night. Kick-off is at 7:45pm.

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