The Swans trailed 1-0 at the break to a Jack Clarke strike in an abject first-half display before Goncalo Franco levelled shortly after the restart as Sheehan’s team rallied early in the second period.
But two second-half own goals from Ipswich old boy Cameron Burgess and a header from substitute Ivon Azon completed a miserable afternoon for the home side, who were booed off the pitch, with small sections baying for managerial change.
Swansea, who drop to 18th place in the Championship table as the international break looms, next travel to Ashton Gate to face play-off chasing Bristol City in a fortnights time.
Five defeats in eight games, and just two league victories since August, have ramped up the pressure on Sheehan to get a result in the fixture. The Irishman, though, feels that results will come, and he is the right man to turn things around.
“I believe I’m the man to take this club forward, of course I do,” said Sheehan after the match.
“I think that nothing good comes easy. I think where we are within football, every manager goes through spells where they don’t win consistently.
“You need to be very strong. You need to be confident and believe in what you do, and I do believe that.
“I think we get so many plaudits from opposition managers and staff about what we do, but we need to turn some of those performances and what we do into wins.
“The first half was incredibly disappointing. We were nowhere near the level that we have been performance-wise.
“We turned the ball over a lot, we looked a bit anxious, we didn’t come out of duels. We were second best, totally.
“Second half we made a few changes to try to give us more impetus. We scored a really well-worked goal.
“Then we turn the ball over again and concede the next goal, then a set-piece. We hit the post with ours and they score.
“You can’t give up these opportunities to teams like this.
“I understand the fans’ frustration in terms of this is my first time in management, so I’ve got no experience of turning things around and this is the first time as a manager when we haven’t been winning regularly.
“There’s no actual proven methodology if you want to say that ‘he’s going to definitely turn around he’s done it before’.
“But I can tell you that we are going to be a good team. I do believe that and sometimes the difference is goals.
“We need to get to a place where we are incredibly aggressive in both boxes and have that belief to go and finish teams off because in terms of box to box at times, we are quite comfortable in games but then it’s the next level.
“I know what my job is, I know what I have to do – we have to get wins, there is no two ways about that.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
