Stoke City 2-1 Swansea City: A tale of two penalties as Stoke get comeback victory

The substitutes saved the day for Stoke as Oussama Assaidi connected with Jonathan Walters late on to give the Potters a third win of the season over a challenging Swansea outfit.

The final result did not seem likely on the basis of the first half as Swansea were playing some fine stuff at the Britannia Stadium. Gary Monk's side had two big chances in the first ten minutes when to start Wayne Routledge and Gylfi Sigurdsson played a delightful one two down the left side, which led to the latter being in on goal only for the Icelandic international to lose control of the ball when trying to go around Asmir Begovic.

Just a couple of minutes later and Sigurdsson was at it again as he combined with Wilfred Bony and Ki Sung Yeung in a triangle move that led to the Korean hitting a right foot shot first time at goal, which Begovic saved well low to his left.

Fast forward to just past the half hour mark and the first talking point of the game as referee Michael Oliver gave the first of two penalties. A right wing corner was whipped in however defender Ryan Shawcross had no eye for the ball and put both hands on Bony hauling the striker to the ground, which led the ref to point to the spot for an offence that is often unpunished. Shawcross was booked and Bony picked himself up to slot the penalty home right footed to the right while Begovic went the wrong way.

Just ten minutes later though and things were evened up as Stoke got a penalty of their own. This one far more controversial though as Victor Moses cut into the box from the left and went down under minimal contact from an Angel Rangel challenge, though the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Charlie Adam took the responsibility for Stoke and left footed powered home into the left bottom corner despite Lukas Fabianski going the right way.

Substitutions were the main factor in the second half in terms of who Mark Hughes brought on for Stoke and the decision from Gary Monk to make Swansea go two up front, which offered more space for Stoke in the end. The first real chance of the second period did not arrive until the 65th minute when a left wing corner was allowed to bounce to the back post where Peter Crouch ran onto it and headed over from just four yards.

Swansea had a similar chance themselves just a minute later when a right side costless kick was headed back across goal by Federico Fernandez for Ki who with his left foot had an attempt blocked and then pounced on by Begovic from just six yards out.

The game defining moment arrived though just 15 minutes from time as all of the Stoke substitutes combined. Geoff Cameron won the ball just inside the Swansea half and played it forward where the ball eventually found Assaidi on the left who curled in a cross right footed that found Walters in space within the middle of the box and he then powered a header into Fabianski's bottom right corner who did not offer a dive.

Player Ratings