Vitor Matos sends warning to Swansea City’s promotion rivals after West Ham defeat

Matos says the disappointment to not take anything from the game says a lot about where his side are

Vitor Matos says his side’s defeat to West Ham United shows Swansea City are capable of competing with anyone in the Championship promotion race.

Divine Mukasa’s first-half goal was enough to separate the two teams in what was a tight affair at the Swansea.com Stadium, although Ben Cabango missed two huge chances to pull his side level, including a close-range effort that came rattling off the crossbar just before the break.

Swansea were competitive for much of the afternoon, and Matos believes the disappointment of not taking something from the game in itself speaks volumes about the progress of his team.

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“I think it’s important that when the game finished we all felt that we could have taken something out of the game.

“We played against a really good opponent that is one of the main contenders to go to the Premier League and we felt that we could compete and we could beat them as well.

“That frustration, that’s something that should stay but that’s something that more than anything should give us the fuel to push ourselves in training, push our standards and keep improving ourselves.”

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‘We can compete

He added: “What I saw today, I think we can compete against every team and that’s what we need to do.

“We need to keep pushing ourselves in that way. We need to keep pushing ourselves to beat the best teams in the league.

“West Ham is one of the best teams. We tried, but unfortunately we could not get something out of the game and that’s the story.”

Perhaps one of the big positives from the day was the performance of goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux, who produced a string of superb stops to keep his side in the game.

“We are used to that. That’s a normal situation. I’m always full of compliments for Vigsy.

“Not only that [his saves], but he’s calm when we start from the back playing-wise.

I think he was important, especially in the second half.

“He was important for us as always. Big saves as well and that allowed us in that moment to try and score.”

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