Heads up and stick together

Steven Schumacher has told his players to keep their heads up and stick together following the Potters’ first defeat in four, on the road at Swansea City.

The Potters were unable to add a third successive away league win in South Wales and their Head Coach urged for a reaction when his side head to Sheffield Wednesday for another crucial Championship content on Saturday.

“Stick together and keep your heads up,” Schumacher said when asked what he said to his team following the 3-0 reverse at the Swansea.com Stadium.

“We have been playing well and we need to remember that, we have been in good form and no matter what happened down here tonight we would have had to go to Sheffield Wednesday and put in a huge performance.

“We will need that even more now.”

He added: “Sheffield Wednesday will be a physical game, they are going to put balls into our box, they are going to have a lot of set-pieces – that is how they got their goals last night – so we will have to defend those situations better than how we did tonight.

“The message is no sulking, get our heads up and go again because it is another huge game at the weekend.”

Schumacher, who acknowledged his side dropped below the standards they have set in recent weeks, also believed his side were on the wrong end of two important decisions at crucial moments in the game.

First, Niall Ennis controversially saw a goal ruled out for a foul on the hosts’ goalkeeper Carl Rushworth before the Swans doubled their advantage through a penalty after Luke McNally was penalised for a foul on Ollie Cooper.

“I thought it was a ridiculous decision at the time,” Schumacher said of City’s disallowed goal.

“I had a good view of it and it looked to me like the goalkeeper tried to take a quick throw-in, he has collided with Niall, who isn’t aware he is even there, and has then tapped the loose ball in.

“I felt it was a poor decision at the time and when our analyst has shown me the replay, I can see it’s definitely not a foul.

“It is disappointing, we didn’t play great in the first half, but it should have been 1-1.”

He added: “The decision for the penalty for the second goal also looks like the challenge is outside of the box so that is two big calls, in a game that wasn’t going the way we wanted it to, we needed to go for us and they didn’t.”