Press Association Sport Staff
Swansea boss Vitor Matos admitted he needs to get to the bottom of what has gone wrong in the past couple of matches after watching his side capitulate in a 5-0 drubbing at QPR.
He said: “A tough result. Not the performance we wanted and not the standards we want.
“Of course, three goals in 15 minutes doesn’t help. We lost confidence and organisation, and concentration as well.
“QPR started much better and were clinical. First chance: score. Second chance: score. Then a penalty. That’s up to us. We need to do better and we can do better.
“Now we look inside, understand what happened and improve. When you lose 5-0 there is not a lot you can say. You look inside and improve.
“We did all the wrongs. But you need to understand what’s wrong and need to improve on that. If you just put it under the carpet, it’s not right.
“We are not a worse team now that we’ve lost two games in a row, but we need to listen to what these games are telling us and try to do a lot of things better.”
QPR boss Julien Stephan sensed Richard Kone was ready to turn a corner after the striker returned to form with a 14-minute hat-trick in the win at Loftus Road.
Kone had failed to score this season and has had fitness issues, but was recalled to the starting line-up by Stephan and emphatically justified the decision.
Stephan insisted he never lost faith in Kone, who scored in the second minute and netted twice more during a blistering start against the Swans, who were top of the Championship until Friday night but have now suffered back-to-back defeats.
Asked about Kone’s turbulent start to the campaign, Stephan said: “Before this game we played less than 25 per cent of the season. We can only do an assessment at the end of the season – not too quickly and not in the middle.”
The Frenchman added: “During the week, with the quality of the week (in training) he had, we felt it was the right moment for him to deliver this kind of performance.
“In my dream, I probably couldn’t have imagined a performance like this, with three goals, but he did everything during the week to prepare for this game in the best way.”
Kone’s fellow attacking players certainly helped him rediscover his scoring touch.
The outstanding Paul Smyth laying the opening goal on a plate for him was just what the striker needed, and Kwame Poku delivered an excellent cross for Kone to double Rangers’ lead with a header into the far corner.
When Smyth was brought down by goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux, Kone converted the resulting penalty to complete his hat-trick.
Jimmy Dunne’s brace capped off a resounding Rangers victory and took them up to eighth in the table.
“Of course I am really pleased for Rich. But I think it’s impossible to speak only about him today, because he received a real gift from Smythy for the first goal. Smythy also won the penalty,” said Stephan.
“I’m very proud of all the players. They deserve big credit. They found a way to disrupt Swansea defensively. I want to enjoy this moment.”
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