Swansea City manager Michael Duff said his side were ultimately undone by three set plays when losing 3-2 at Ipswich Town.
The South Wales side started and finished this game strongly, but really should have been put to bed during a middle hour in which Town created a plethora of chances.
“It's frustrating because I thought there were elements of our game where we were excellent,” said Duff, after watching his team lose on the road for the first time since September 16.
"Ultimately, if you break the game down into really simplistic terms, we've been beaten by a 35-yard screamer, conceded from a throw-in, conceded a penalty from a corner (free-kick) and had a man sent off from a throw-in. So it's three set plays ultimately, coming here against a good team.
"I think we're second in the league for set plays. People make mistakes, they’re human beings. But that just adds to the frustration.
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"We kept the ball really well, started the game on the front foot, shot ourselves in the foot, had a mad 15 minutes, but got back into it.
“And then, when we went down to 10 men, I thought we were excellent. I think the fact that there are 30,000 people biting their nails when the nine minutes (of injury time) goes up and they're time-wasting tells you everything in that part of the performance.
“I'm really pleased with some of the character and some of the quality, but ultimately it's frustrating because you come away with nothing.”
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He continued: “Ipswich are a good team, they are where they are in the league. They’re a club on the up at the minute, so they’ve got everything going for them.
“We got out every goalkick in the second half with 10 men. First half, we didn’t get out once. That’s the frustration. It’s executing things that we’re asking them to do.
“If we'd come here and were turgid and got beat 4-0, you'd think you’d been beaten by a better team. But I think we showed real good quality in elements of our game today.
“I think you can see some of the work that's been going on. We've just got to keep chipping away.”
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