On a bleak afternoon for Swansea in East Anglia, first-half goals from forwards Anis Mehmeti and Ivan Azon put the Tractoe Boys in control at the break, before substitute George Hirst added the third to compound Matos’ men’s misery late.
Substitute Zan Vipotnik, came closest to a Swansea goal when hammering a free-kick against the bar in added time, but it would be a bad day at the office for the Welsh side, who were outclassed by an Ipswich team looking to bounce back to the Premier League at the first opportunity.
The reverse leaves the 16th-placed Swans 11 points adrift of the play-off places and 12 clear of the relegation zone, with faint hopes of a late dash to the end of season play-offs now looking slim.
“When you lose, you need always to learn,” said Matos after the defeat.
“Suffering the goal in the third minute of course influenced what comes after that.
“It’s hard to come here. Ipswich are a well-organised team with a brilliant squad and a good manager. They were better than us.
“We knew the first minutes were important but they scored and we had to chase the game.
“Ipswich are in the top spots in the league. We saw the reasons why, and that’s what we need to find ourselves when we need to compete against these teams.
“We were not aggressive enough, we were not intense enough. With the ball, we didn’t find the right players to start the attack. Sometimes we had it, but in the end, there was no outcome.”
After a three-game week, the Swans now have a week to digest the defeat before welcoming a Stoke City side two places and just one point above them to the Swansea.com Stadium next weekend in a match where Matos expects improvements.
“It’s important to learn what we can improve. Sometimes it’s more important what you get out of a defeat than when you win,” continued the Swansea boss.
“We need to put the players on the pitch, take the defeat out of their minds and their bodies and push ourselves.
“If we want to reach the level we want, we need to train and push hard. We have had good games before. We will do better games after this. We learn and move on.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
