Jamie Paterson has urged his Swansea City teammates to continue believing in themselves after their weekend defeat to Middlesbrough, setting his teammates the challenge of closing the gap on the top six after falling back in the play-off race.

He revealed this target to the Swans' media team after their 1-0 loss against Chris Wilder's men at the Riverside, dominating possession and having their own chances to get on the scoresheet, but being unable to convert any as they fired a blank in front of goal.

This inability to be clinical proved to be their downfall on Teesside, with one moment of magic from Sol Bamba proving to be the difference as he sold Paterson a dummy before playing a wonderful ball through to Isiah Jones down the right-hand side.

The 22-year-old made no mistake as he ran in on goal and slotted the ball calmly past Ben Hamer, providing Russell Martin's men with an uphill battle from the 26th minute as they looked to cancel out the deficit.

Saturday afternoon's visitors did have their fair share of opportunities as mentioned, with Boro goalkeeper seemingly taking down 29-year-old Paterson in the first half, though referee Andy Davies wasn't interested.

In the end, the closest they came to scoring was through Joel Piroe, who had his effort cleared off the line miraculously by Paddy McNair.

That consigned the Welsh outfit to a second consecutive loss - but one of Dutchman's teammates did have a message for his team after suffering their latest setback as they look ahead to this weekend's match against Forest.

That was attacking midfielder and creative outlet Paterson, who said: "It’s still a process, we are still learning but I think teams are worried about us and you can see that in how sides try to play against us and how aggressive they were in their pressing.

"Take all that into account and we have come away from home to a good side, with a new manager who has buoyed them, and we have had the better of long spells of the game and had the chances to win it.

"So, it’s about learning from it and not being too disappointed, although of course we don’t like losing games.

"But it’s about continuing to work hard, continuing to believe in ourselves because I think we are a good side and I think we will continue to get better.

"If we do that we will be able to get the results we want and start closing back towards those play-off places."

The Verdict:

Swansea are a side that will dominate possession in most games this season, but turning style into substance will continue to be the challenge they have to meet under manager Martin and will be the difference between success and failure in the 35-year-old's reign.

However, the fact many Swans fans have wanted a more attractive style of play after Steve Cooper's tenure will potentially give their current boss more time to rectify things if they get into a sticky situation.

But Paterson is right to reassure his teammates, because they are in a much better position now than they were in the early stages of the 2021/22 campaign, so they have a bit of breathing room to make more errors and express themselves as they continue to work their way through a transition phase.

This is a time when they can afford to have setbacks like this, and with many teams close together in midtable at this stage, all it would take is another few wins on the bounce to put them in contention for a top-six spot again.

They shouldn't lose confidence from Saturday's game, because that was a tough test against a good side and the fact they were able to dominate the football and create good chances is a promising sign of what's to come.