By Paul Jones

Michael Duff has told his Swansea City players they need to become far more ruthless if they are to kickstart their Championship campaign.

The Swans head coach saw his team lost 2-1 at Preston at the weekend after leading 1-0, a result that leaves them down in 20th place in the early season table and still searching for their first win after four games.

Duff has warned his players they must kill off teams when they hold a lead and it requires a collective change of attitude.

“There needs to be a mentality shift, that’s a disappointing thing – we should know that teams in this division are not just going to roll over,” said Duff.

“We definitely need to be putting teams to the sword when we’re 1-0 up. Some of the passes and the movement in that second half just wasn’t good enough.

“We gave away two quite soft goals in the end, but we shouldn’t really have been in that situation in the first place.”

Nathan Wood starts this afternoon #Swans https://t.co/KKgFZcGKg2

— Tom Coleman (@tomEcoleman) August 26, 2023

Swansea fans’ sense of frustration would not have been helped by hearing that Joel Piroe – sold by the Swans on Thursday night – scored his first goal for Leeds United less that 48 hours later in a 4-3 win at Ipswich Town.

Duff has acknowledged he needs to bring in a new striker, but admitted he has no idea how much of the £10m down payment for Piroe he has to spend.

The Swans have been linked with Aston Villa striker Keinan Davis but Duff added: “You ask any manager in the Football League and they’ll all tell you they want another centre-forward.

“But you can get any centre-forward. It’s about trying to get the right one.

“There are loads of conversations going on every week. It doesn’t just have to be someone that can score 20 goals. We can maybe score more goals from set plays.

“There’s many more ways to make up than just replacing a like-for-like Joel Piroe. We’ve got to find a way to do it.

“Do I think we’re going to get whatever he went for, I think it was 10, 11, 12 million quid, are we going to go and spend that? No. But I think we need to go and spend some of it.”

Swansea City head coach Michael Duff on the second rejected Southampton bid for defender Nathan Wood pic.twitter.com/4C0SsZzKy5

— Simon Davies (@simondavies45) August 26, 2023

The Swans went ahead with a terrific strike after 33 minutes. Charlie Patino crossed in superbly for the onrushing Harrison Ashby and he buried an angled volley from eight yards.

But the Swans missed further chances and Preston evened it up in the 67th minute when Andrew Hughes rose highest to flick home a measured cross from skipper Alan Browne.

Twelve minutes later the game was turned on its head when Duane Holmes side-footed home after mistakes by the Swans in defence.

Preston manager Ryan Lowe said: “The whole group has been fantastic so far this season. We were a little bit disappointed at half-time at being behind, but after that the attitude and application of all the lads was first-class.

“The lads are taking instructions on board and as a manager I can’t ask for more than that.

“We showed resilience too, which is also pleasing for me. The lads have got confidence. We don’t take a lot of notice of what other teams are doing, we just concentrate on going about our own business. We’re finding a way to win matches, and that’s all it’s about really.”

Joel Piroe to Leeds United has now officially been confirmed.

• 95 games
• 46 goals
• 2 SW Derby goals.
• Bought for £1M
• Sold for £12M

One of the best finishers I’ve seen. Joel Piroe, thank you for the past two years.

No Piroe No Party. 🦢🇳🇱
pic.twitter.com/m0tjU2uO7i

— Jordan (@JordanWebber96) August 24, 2023