Saturday 22 April 2017 19:39, UK
Mark Hughes blamed a poor start for Stoke's disappointing 2-0 defeat at relegation-threatened Swansea.
The Potters were caught cold at the Liberty Stadium as Fernando Llorente's 10th-minute opener set the Swans on course for a much-needed victory.
Marko Arnautovic blazed a second-half penalty over as a below-par Stoke side failed to drag themselves back into the game.
And, exactly a minute later, Tom Carroll added insult to injury as he deflected effort sealed a vital victory for Paul Clement's men in their fight against relegation.
"We made it difficult for ourselves, we didn't start quick enough and allowed them to have a couple of corners, a few opportunities and we conceded from one of them," Hughes told Sky Sports.
"Clearly that wasn't our game plan, we wanted to affect them in terms of their confidence, they were not in great shape coming into this game and there was a little anxiety before the game.
"Clearly the early goal settled them and we didn't ask enough questions of them. In the second half, prior to our penalty, we dominated possession in their half but we obviously needed to take the chance, convert the penalty and make it 1-1.
"Anxiety would have spread rapidly around the stadium and we could very well have capitalised on it.
"As it was we missed the penalty and they went up the other end and got a deflected shot that loops over Jack Butland. At that stage it was very difficult for us to get anything out of the game.
The defeat, Stoke's fifth in their last six league outings, came to typify that of a team left with little to play for this season, with the Potters in relative safety sat 11th in the Premier League.
"We looked careless in key moments and lack guile when quality was needed at crucial moments," Hughes added.
"In key areas of the field we lacked that, you've obviously got to be able to retain the ball in the opposition half and create chances.
"We had plenty of possession without really creating the chances we needed, a lot of our stuff petered out and we were finding ourselves going in the other direction.
"From our point of view we have to be better than that, we didn't ask enough questions of Swansea in a game that was there for us to really sap their confidence if we started brightly. We needed to do better than we did."
