In an even battle, with chances at either end of the field, the Potters would edge an entertaining contest. A long-range effort from midfielder Ben Pearson opened the scoring just on half-time, before Wales international Sorba Thomas fired in at the far post from Bae Junho’s low cross midway through the second period to wrap up the points.
Swans’ leading scorer Zan Vipotnik pulled one back, meeting substitute Melker Widell’s sumptuous centre with a crisp finish to give Matos’ side hope late on, but Potters would hold on to take all three points.
Stoke end a run of three straight defeats to move into seventh position in the league table, whilst Swansea drop a place to 19th – four points off the relegation zone.
“I’m disappointed not to get something from the game,” said Matos post-match.
“I think it was a good game that we should have grabbed from the start. We were a little bit passive in the way we approached it.
“In this kind of game, when we come here to Stoke, we need to grab it from the beginning.
“We grew into the game, then Stoke scored. Then the second goal on the moment we were making changes.
“The character to show we were willing to keep going was important.
“From there we grew into the game again and we felt we could get the two goals. We scored the one and we had this feeling we could get something.
“But we showed character and willing to grab something from today. We created chances. When you create chances, you need to score, because we know how hard it is to score here.
“We need to keep improving, and we need to keep going. We need to start to be a team that really wants to compete against everyone in every place we go.
“For that, we need to do a lot of things right. We’ve a few other things we need to keep improving, but the Championship is about points and about getting the results, and that’s what we need to get as well.
“We have one week to train and then we play Wrexham. That’s what we need to focus on now.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
