Report | Stoke City 3 Swansea City 1

Swansea City fell to defeat despite taking the lead against Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium.

After a forgettable first half with little in the way of goalmouth action, the visitors got their noses in front when Josh Tymon took advantage of a defensive slip to score against his old club.

But the Potters were level just a few minutes later as Wouter Burger headed home from a free-kick.

And another set-piece proved Swansea’s undoing when Bae Junho arrived in the box to convert, and LLewis Baker added insult to injury in stoppage time when he scored from just inside his own half.

Kyle Naughton, Gonçalo Franco, Ollie Cooper and Liam Cullen had all come into the Swans team in the Potteries as Luke Williams made four changes following defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.

Stoke, meanwhile, brought Ben Pearson, Junho, Lewis Koumas, Jordan Thompson, Junior Tchamadeu and Andy Moran into their team following their loss at Bristol City.

There was plenty of energy about the home side’s start, as they charged around closing down black shirts.

But the Swans soon settled and began to move the ball around confidently.

They produced a lovely move in the eighth minute, started by Jisung Eom and driven on by Lewis O’Brien, whose superb through ball set Ollie Cooper free only for the midfielder to strike the woodwork and the offside flag to be raised.

But the visitors did not build on that encouraging sign. The game became a stop-start affair, characterised by a lack of fluency from both sides.

Wouter Burger sent an ambitious effort narrowly wide after the Stoke midfielder had driven infield after a nice turn on the edge of the Swansea box.

Cullen sent a low effort wide on the turn after Stoke had failed to clear with Josh Tymon’s driven ball into the box just past the half-hour mark.

It remained goalless at the break and it was clear that it was going to take a greater attacking impetus from the two teams if the contest was to find any sort of spark.

Swansea made the better start to the second half, Cullen expertly pulling down a long ball from Ben Cabango and exchanging passes with Tymon before firing over.

Lawrence Vigouroux then saved Ali Al-Hamadi’s shot after a ball had fallen kindly for the Stoke forward in the area.

Cullen was just unable to bring the ball in as he wrestled to get to a half-cleared Cooper cross.

Moments later the Swans took the lead on the hour as Tymon scored at the home of his former club.

There was a slice of fortune involved. Ronald got away down the right and his deep cross found Cullen, he controlled and fed Tymon in behind.

Keeper Viktor Johansson and Ashley Phillips looked to have it covered, but they collided, the ball ran loose and Tymon swept home right-footed from an acute angle.

However, the lead did not last three minutes as Burger’s header from a free-kick was adjudged to have crossed the line before Cullen could hack clear.

Eom blazed over from a Franco pull-back a few moments later as the game suddenly sprang to life.

But the next blow was struck by the Potters with 18 minutes to go, two Swansea defenders were unable to block a flat free-kick delivery and Junho arrived to direct the ball beyond Vigouroux into the net.

Swansea sought to hit back, Florian Bianchini unable to make meaningful contact with a Ronald cross.

But any thoughts of snatching a late equaliser were extinguished when Baker pounced on a pass and immediately picked his head up to send the ball over the backpedalling Vigouroux and into the net.

Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Ben Cabango (captain), Kyle Naughton (Harry Darling 76), Hannes Delcroix; Ronald, Gonçalo Franco, Lewis O’Brien, Josh Tymon; Jisung Eom (Josh Key 89), Ollie Cooper (Jay Fulton 76); Liam Cullen (Florian Bianchini 68).

Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Žan Vipotnik, Josh Ginnelly, Cyrus Christie, Myles Peart-Harris.

Stoke City: Viktor Johansson (captain), Ben Pearson (Lewis Baker 62), Michael Rose, Wouter Burger (Tatsuki Seko 77), Ali Al-Hamadi (Nathan Lowe 86), Bae Junho, Lewis Koumas (Million Manhoef 62), Jordan Thompson (Josh Wilson-Esbrand 87), Junior Tchamadeu, Andrew Moran, Ashley Phillips.

Unused Substitutes: Jack Bonham, Andre Vidigal, Ben Gibson, Emre Tezgel.

Referee: Dean Whitestone

Attendance: 21,256