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Luke Williams Insists He’s Encouraged . . . As He Still Waits For First League Win At Swansea City

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By Gareth James

Luke Williams insisted he would take some encouragement from Swansea City’s latest defeat – even though it was their third in as many games during which they have conceded 11 goals.

The Swans fell to a 3-1 defeat at Leicester City which leaves then 17th in the Championship, eight points above the relegation zone.
Head coach Williams has now been in charge for five matches, with a record of one win, one draw, and three defeats.

Two of those games have been FA Cup ties – the 2-0 victory over Morecambe and the 5-0 thrashing at Bournemouth – whilst two of the three league games have been against teams chasing promotion.

Williams began his league tally with a draw at Birmingham, but has since lost to Southampton and now Leicester.

“I feel like we were competitive in the game for large periods and I think that’s an incredibly difficult thing to do here,” said Williams after the defeat to the Foxes.

“We really gifted the second two goals. The first one is outstanding play. I think it can be closer, the scoreline, for sure.

“Barring us making errors for the second two goals, maybe it can be different.

“I think if you want to get something here, you have to be really clinical. The first thing is try to create some chances, the second thing is convert them.

“We didn’t manage to do that, so it’s a bit disappointing, but there are some encouraging things to take away as well.

“I think the fixtures have been incredibly tough. I hope we can start to move forward and look upwards.”

Leicester moved 10 points clear at the top of the Championship after Enzo Maresca’s side took the lead through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall after only three minutes.

Dewsbury-Hall is believed to be a January transfer target for Brighton, but he showed no signs that the speculation was affecting his game.

Leicester then missed a number of opportunities to put the game beyond Swansea’s reach, before Stephy Mavididi scored a 69th-minute penalty and substitute Yunus Akgun added a third, just three minutes later.

Joe Allen scored a stoppage-time consolation goal, but the result left Williams still searching for his first league win in charge.

Maresca said: “Tonight it was even more important [to win] after you drop points against Coventry, you drop points against Ipswich.

“We scored three but we could score more. First half especially we had more chances. But at the end it’s important to create chances.

“We could do many things better but in the end we are happy.

“Now because we are in the last part of the season, the most important thing is to win games. Tonight we won the game.”

Leicester took the lead after only three minutes as Dewsbury-Hall scored his 10th goal of the season

Patson Daka played the ball through Nathan Wood’s legs for Dewsbury-Hall, who took his time before picking his spot and putting the ball past Swansea goalkeeper Carl Rushworth.

But Leicester should have added a second after 19 minutes when Dewsbury-Hall crossed from the right for Daka, who was back in the team after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations with Zambia. But he sliced the ball wide from four yards out.

Leicester came close adding a second on the stroke of half-time when Mavididi’s shot from the edge of the area was tipped on to the crossbar by Rushworth.

Dewsbury-Hall then set up Daka for another chance, but he put his effort over.

The hosts had another chance to score – six minutes after half-time – and this time it was Dewsbury-Hall’s turn as he put a Dennis Praet cross wide from close range at the far post.

Swansea defender Harry Darling then went off injured after 61 minutes.

Leicester’s Kasey McAteer saw a long-range effort fly over the bar and Swansea almost hit back straight away when Jamie Paterson went close from 20 yards out.

But the Foxes finally found the net after 69 minutes from the penalty spot.

Daka took the ball off Swansea’s Bashir Humphreys on the halfway line and raced towards goal.

Wood caught up with the Leicester striker but was penalised for a lunging challenge, missed the ball and left Daka falling over in the box. Wood disputed referee Keith Stroud’s decision, but Mavididi stepped up to convert the spot-kick.

Leicester were three up after 72 minutes as substitute Yunus scored for the second-successive game.

Galatasaray loanee Yunus made the most of some hesitancy in the Swans defence to pounce following a poor clearance from Rushworth.

Swansea scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time when Jay Fulton’s cross was headed back into the six-yard area by Ben Cabango and Jerry Yates failed to connect before Allen scored from eight yards out.

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