Swansea City manager Michael Duff says his team “shot themselves in the foot” defensively in their defeat to Ipswich Town on Saturday, but insists the defeat in Suffolk could have been positive.

After taking the lead through Jay Fulton, the Swans were defeated by goals from Jack Taylor, Conor Chaplin and a George Hurst penalty, although Jamal Lowe scored a second late on.

Duff believes his side’s three goals conceded and Liam Cullen’s dismissal are due to his side’s inability to deal with Ipswich’s standard threat, a problem that has proved difficult for his team in the past. .

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Indeed, Swansea have been working hard to develop their strength in this department in recent weeks, and the work of manager Martin Margetson is seen as a huge influence on what has been a marked improvement in recent weeks.

Before the trip to East Anglia, the Swans were actually the second best team in the league with the fewest goals conceded from set pieces.

“I thought there were some great elements to our game,” Duff said after the game. “But at the end of the day, if you look at the game in really simplistic terms, we were beaten by a 35-yard field goal, we missed a throw-in, we missed a layup penalty and we had a player ejected.

“There are three set pieces, at the end of the day, against a very good team. We kept the ball very well and started the game on the front foot, but then we shot ourselves in the foot for a frantic 15 minutes, but we recovered.

“When we were down to 10 men, I thought we were great. After the nine minutes are up, we have ten men and they are wasting time, that tells everything about that part of the performance. I was very happy with some characters, but in the end it’s frustrating.

“People make mistakes. I think we’re second in the league in defending sets. But that just adds to the frustration. If we came here and were even and won 4-0, you’d agree we’d get beat by a better team.

“But I think today we showed very good quality in some elements of our game. I think you can see some of the work in progress. We just have to keep saying no.

“I’ve already said that I want to get to the point where we dominate the ball and don’t concede goals. We do small moments, but not everything.”

Meanwhile, Duff was furious at Dane Scarlett’s late tackle on Matt Grimes in the final ten minutes of the defeat. Substitute Grimes was booked for a challenge in the Swansea box and Grimes received prolonged treatment. Josh Tymon also had to get the medical team’s attention once.

“They were wrong decisions,” he added. “I think whoever plays Grimes is a terrible tackle. He was out of control and out of control. I think they got through it [without an injury].

“It’s frustrating for us now that we have a two-week break, but we’re working with a team of 12, 13 people and five or six are on international vacation so we won’t be able to see them for a while.” week. That’s why it will be difficult to play 11 vs 11 with six or seven players.

“So that’s another disappointment.”