Swansea City vs Stoke City. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance16,612.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash at the Liberty Stadium
Saturday 5 October 2019 18:57, UK
Scott Hogan's 90th-minute winner gave Stoke their first win of the season with a 2-1 victory over former Sky Bet Championship leaders Swansea.
Nathan Jones watched his side fall behind in the opening minute to Andre Ayew's first Liberty Stadium goal since 2016.
But their spirited fightback will give Jones hope of a revival after former Swansea midfielder Sam Clucas levelled the scores midway through the first half.
It looked like Stoke were going to miss the chance to end their 10-game winless run until Hogan found the back of the net in the final minute of normal time.
Tom Edwards and Tyrese Campbell replaced James McClean and Tom Ince as Jones searched for an answer to Stoke's miserable start to the season.
But his bid to kickstart Stoke's season and save his job against the league leaders got off to the worst possible start after just 52 seconds.
Swansea's intricate passing drew Stoke towards the ball before they released Yan Dhanda in behind Badou Ndiaye.
The former Liverpool youngster sprinted clear and fired a low shot that Adam Federici could only block into the path of Ayew, who tucked the rebound away to give the league leaders their opener.
Ayew and his attacking colleague Borja Baston both had opportunities to rub salt into the wound but failed to hit the back of the net.
And they were almost made to pay when Peter Etebo slipped Lee Gregory in behind the defence but Freddie Woodman dived at full stretch to his right to deny Stoke an equaliser.
Jones finally got a lifeline after 22 minutes thanks to his former Swan Clucas. Ex-Liberty Stadium favourite Joe Allen broke into the box and forced a reaction save from Woodman but Clucas was on hand to smash home the rebound.
And they would have gone in at half-time ahead if it was not for a glaring miss from Gregory.
The Stoke forward hit the side netting from three yards out after Woodman parried Bruno Martins Indi's powerful header into his path.
Etebo watched his deflected shot rattle the bar within seconds of the restart as Stoke started to believe following their improved first-half performance.
Clucas slid in at the back post with 57 minutes gone but failed to divert Etebo's cross into the back of the net before Gregory sent another tame effort straight into the hands of Woodman.
Momentum looked to have swung back the way of the hosts, but Jones sent on the attacking duo of Sam Vokes and Hogan to devastating effect.
With the clock ticking down, Woodman could only palm Vokes' powerful shot back into the danger zone, and Hogan produced a poacher's finish to snatch a vital win for Stoke and Jones.
Steve Cooper: "The result was poor and the performance was equally as poor. We fell short with our performance levels and didn't do what we aim to do in every game. Ultimately it cost us. We turned the ball over too many times, we didn't press well enough. We wanted to show Stoke into certain areas, but when we had them there we let them out come out.
"When you don't do the basics well enough it will cost you and that was the case. It was as black and white as that. We had a perfect start. You go a goal up and you should build on that, and we did. We created other chances where we were good going forward, but for some reason we didn't want to play forward, we didn't want to break lines. We didn't want to be brave enough in areas of the pitch to make a difference."
Nathan Jones: "I know I can turn the job around. That's never been the thing. I've done a lot of thinking and soul searching over the last week and I'm a passionate guy, that's got me the career I've had. At Luton I was a passionate guy who drove the team on and the fans loved me for it. Here, it's the Championship, it's much scrutinised, so I've gone back to being me and I like being me because I have to live with me.
"I'm a forward thinking coach and manager and I take a lot on me. I never shirk a challenge or avoid one. I meet it head-on. Catalyst is a good word for it, we needed something to speed things up, almost in a scientific, chemical way. It's a first step but we can't get carried away.
"It's just one step. For six or seven of the previous 10 games we have made big errors. We have had a foothold in games and then had a red card. Things like that have gone against us. You can't keep saying that over a 46-game season but our results were baffling. By all logic they shouldn't have been happening, so hopefully this can be a turning point."
