Swansea City skipper Matt Grimes regrets not “taking one for the team” to stop Nottingham Forest returning home with three points from the Liberty Stadium.
The Reds had got the better of their opponents for much of Saturday’s game in South Wales, but seemed to be on course for what would have been a frustrating 0-0 draw after spurning a number of chances.
That was until the 85th minute, when Lewis Grabban raced down the right and teed up Alfa Semedo for the winner.
Grabban had the beating of Grimes as he picked up on a loose pass and powered towards goal - and the Swans midfielder says he should have fouled his opponent to stop the threat.
“It’s not a nice way to concede, I probably should have taken one for the team,” he told Wales Online.
“I watched it back and it crossed my mind, I should have pulled him back but I wasn’t sure in the heat of the moment.
“If I get into that position again, I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
Forest’s 1-0 win meant a first defeat of the season for Swansea, who have been overtaken by Leeds United at the top of the Championship table, on goal difference.
Grimes admits they were simply beaten by the better team.
“If you’d given us this position at the start of the season, then we would have taken it,” he added. “But it’s just about how we learn from the defeat.
“It’s our first one so we’ll learn a lot.
“You learn a lot more from defeat than victory and we’ll have a look at what went wrong.
“It’s all about us, if we play that game another nine times we’ll probably win.
“I didn’t feel the lads were tired after the break, we just weren’t good enough.”
