Swansea players rally round under-fire manager Paul Clement after woeful display against Brighton

Swansea's players rallied in support of head coach Paul Clement after yet another shocking home display saw them drop into the Premier League's bottom three.

Glenn Murray's first-half goal gave Brighton victory at the Liberty Stadium as the home side were booed off following a 90 minutes which saw Clement's men come close to woeful at times.

A narrow brush with relegation last season was a real scare for Swansea's supporters, but on this form another long battle with the drop looks likely. Clement retains the backing of his squad, but the ire of Swansea's fans at the club's players and board was more than obvious here.

“We are all really behind Paul,” said Swansea captain Federico Fernandez. “Now it’s time to relax and think about positive things. We need to work, work and work. It’s the only way we know to improve. We are a team, a club who stay together and we push each other to be the best. At the moment it’s not really working, but we will try until the end to stay together and turn it around.”

Clement was understandably downbeat at full time. His team were jeered from the field at both half time and the final whistle with misplaced passes and shocking free-kicks the main reason for discontent among the majority of a 20,822 crowd.

Fernandez was culpable for Murray's goal. Just minutes after wiping out the Brighton striker and earning a deserved booking, the Argentine gave Murray far too much room in the six-yard box.

He did the rest, converting the impressive Anthony Knockaert's cross for what proved to be the only goal of the game. Murray's strike led to more catcalls from Swansea's fans and, in truth, they never really went away. Luciano Narsingh struck the bar late on, but Clement admitted his team didn't deserve to take anything from the game. 

“Of course we’re very disappointed. We made a mistake and then it’s difficult to recover,” said Fernandez.

“There were some difficult moments and we tried to move forward and to create chances. We had one very clear one at the end, but we didn’t score so for the moment, that’s it.

“We already know our position, but we now have to try to start taking points because we don’t want to stay in the same position. Now we’re trying to rest and focus for the next game.”

While Swansea struggle, it's a different story for Brighton. They're now up to eighth and continue to defy the doubters in their first season in the Premier League.

“I'm not surprised at where we are, not at all,” said impressive playmaker Knockaert.

“We’re there because we have the quality to be there. We are a difficult team to play against now.

“When teams play against us maybe they think it will be an easy game, but everyone can see now we’re a tough team to beat. If we keep going maybe people will give us more respect.

“Maybe they didn’t give us that in the first few games. We were coming from the Championship and now we’re showing that we are a tough team to play against and we can get results as well. It's really good for us at the moment.”