Swansea City's defence of the Capital One Cup is over after they crashed at their first hurdle - losing 3-1 at Birmingham with a very much weakened side played by Michael Laudrup.
This time last year the Swans were scraping past Crawley Town in the third round of the competition thanks to a last minute goal. This time around there was to be no reprieve for the Swans as three second half goals were enough to give the Championship side the honour of knocking out the defending holders meaning no return to Wembley this season. Or at least not in this tournament
Michael Laudrup made ten changes from the side that started on Sunday at Crystal Palace which meant a complete change at the back with Garry Monk and Jordi Amat making up the central defensive pairing with Tremmel, Tiendalli and Neil Taylor in the side alongside them.
Having said that there was enough in the side to - you would assume - have had enough to defeat Birmingham and had the Swans taken the chances that they had in the first half then it would have been so. They were guilty again of being wasteful and were made to pay in the second half with a sub standard performance that got the result that it deserved.
Dan Burn put the home side ahead when he headed home a Caddis cross with a free header just before the hour mark and minutes later Green met another cross at the back post to double the Blues lead.
Adeyemi made the result beyond doubt when he scored the third ten minutes from time and Bony's goal in stoppage time was clearly by that point nothing more than a consolation.
Whilst the Swans may have more important fish to fry it is disappointing at all times to lose to lower league opposition but we don't become a bad team overnight especially when the team that loses will be unrecognisable from the team that plays against Arsenal on Saturday.
Onwards!!