Swansea City vs Stoke City. Sky Bet Championship.
Swansea.com StadiumAttendance14,692.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea City and Stoke City at the Swansea.com Stadium on Wednesday night | Liam Cullen, a Matt Grimes penalty and Josh Key seal win.
Wednesday 10 April 2024 23:05, UK
Swansea eased any lingering relegation concerns by beating Stoke 3-0 to leave the Potters hovering perilously above the Championship drop zone.
Liam Cullen poked Jamie Paterson's cross beyond Daniel Iversen to put Swansea ahead in the 19th minute before Matt Grimes doubled the hosts' lead after 53 minutes with a penalty after Luke McNally tripped Ollie Cooper.
Josh Key capped off a fine victory for Luke Williams' men with his second goal of the campaign after 73 minutes as Swansea claimed a first win in four, ending Stoke's three-game unbeaten run and leaving them three points above the bottom three.
The Swans started on the front foot as former Stoke defender Josh Tymon teed up Jay Fulton who drilled well wide.
The hosts should have gone ahead in the 13th minute as Paterson left Ki-Jana Hoever spinning before picking out Fulton who could only rifle against the post from 10 yards.
But Swansea did take the lead soon after following a quickly taken free-kick.
Captain Grimes fed Paterson who had acres of space to cross to Cullen who poked home his seventh of the season from close range.
Cullen had a chance to double his side's lead moments later when Grimes intercepted Michael Rose's wayward clearance, although the Welshman could only volley over from the edge of the 18-yard box.
Stoke struggled to threaten in the torrid south Wales rain, with Wouter Burger heading wide from Million Manhoef's corner just before the half-hour mark.
The Potters thought they had equalised in bizarre fashion just seconds later though when Rose chipped into the Swansea box.
Goalkeeper Carl Rushworth gathered the ball before losing control after an unintentional collision with Niall Ennis who duly poked into the net, although the goal was swiftly disallowed by referee Keith Stroud.
After a slow start, Steven Schumacher's men found a foothold in the contest, with Manhoef flashing an effort wide.
And they spurned a fine chance to level proceedings in the dying seconds of the first half when Ennis played Manhoef through on goal, although Harry Darling recovered to force the Dutchman to fire wide from an acute angle.
They were ruthlessly punished for not taking their chances as Swansea doubled their lead with a penalty after the break.
McNally tripped Cooper on the edge of the area, and Grimes stepped up to rifle into the roof of the net from the spot.
Cullen almost got his second of the night from a well-worked corner routine minutes later, although his deflected effort trickled inches wide.
But Swansea got their third late on as Jamal Lowe danced up the left wing, teeing up Key whose first touch took him beyond Rose before unleashing a fierce effort into the net.
Swansea's Luke Williams:
"When we sit and review the (previous three) games, without the emotion on the day, we're controlling the game in the last three games we played.
"We get there and we fizzle out a little bit. We gave not too much to the opposition but then something was missing.
"We're getting there and not quite scoring, we're keeping the opposition out and they get a chance and score from nothing, so there was something missing.
"But tonight we put the intensity and aggression, all of that lovely stuff, we put back in and got a really great result.
"We have to finish off now, the bare minimum, we have to play with that type of intensity and connection. I want us to continue like that."
Stoke's Steven Schumacher:
"I felt we got beat by the better team on the night, Swansea in all departments were better than us.
"They won all of the battles, the 50:50s and they also passed the ball better and were brighter from set-piece moments.
"It was a poor performance from us and it's one that we weren't expecting because we've been playing really well.
"We just fell a bit low tonight and we got punished. That's the Championship for you, if you're not at it 100 per cent you can get turned over."
