Wilfried Bony expressed his pain after Swansea City suffered a 2-0 loss to Brentford in the Championship play-off final on Saturday.
The defeat quashed Swansea City’s hopes of playing in the Premier League next season and it was their second successive disappointment in the play-off after they were knocked out by the Bees in the semi-final last year.
First-half goals from Ivan Toney and Emiliano Marcondes did the damage to the Swans at Wembley Stadium.
The result came as a blow to Bony who had two stints at Liberty Stadium and he also encouraged Steve Cooper’s men to keep fighting for their return to the English top-flight next season.
Bony wrote on Instagram. “I am with a broken heart, as many of Swansea fans, but I can tell you guys, you have done a lot during this long and difficult season, you have to be proud of yourselves and I believe that you will get the support from all the fans.
“I also believe that you will make it to the Premier League next season, because without failure we can’t improve. Learn from those 2 finals and the next one will be ours.”
Ghana captain Andre Ayew was in action for the Swans on Saturday but his contributions were not enough to help the team achieve their promotion target.
Cooper, in his post-game reaction, maintained that his team will bounce back from the disappointment and will continue pushing for promotion.
“For me, I have always worked on the basis that although setbacks are the hardest thing, they are the most important thing that defines you,” he told the club website.
“So don’t worry about me. We’ll get back to Swansea and the off-season plans will kick on as normal.
“Setbacks have got to make you stronger and define you. You either sulk and things get even worse, or you come back fighting even stronger.
“That will definitely be this set of players’ mentality because they have always done that.
“We have had to do that this season to get as far as this, particularly in the circumstances we’ve had to work in. That will be the lads’ approach I am sure.”
