Swansea City 3-0 Stoke City: Cullen, Grimes and Key goals leave Potters in survival fight
Swansea City eased their relegation concerns with a 3-0 cruise past Stoke City which leaves the Potters still scrapping for Championship survival.
Liam Cullen's crisp finish gave Swansea a first-half lead before Niall Ennis thought he had claimed a bizarre leveller, only for his effort to be ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Carl Rushworth.
Matt Grimes drilled in from the spot to give Swansea breathing space early in the second half before Josh Key's fine counter-attack goal sealed what was ultimately a comprehensive victory.
Swansea's first win in four games may well prove to be the result which guarantees they will still be in the second tier next season.
Luke Williams' side are now seven points clear of 22nd-place Sheffield Wednesday with just four league games remaining in this campaign.
But while Swansea look close to safety, Stoke have much work to do to secure their Championship status after their three-game unbeaten run came to an abrupt end.
Steven Schumacher's side are just three points above the drop zone with a potentially pivotal game against the Owls to come at Hillsborough on Saturday.
This was a meeting of two clubs who, having begun 2023-24 with some degree of optimism, have spent the majority of the season licking wounds.
Swansea responded to their latest painful day, at Middlesbrough last weekend, by showing much more purpose against Stoke.
They ought to have gone ahead when Jamie Paterson spun away from Ki-Jana Hoever and pulled back for Jay Fulton, but a big chance went begging as the Scot's shot hit the post.
The opener came from a free-kick near halfway, right-back Key exchanging passes with Grimes before crossing invitingly for Cullen to guide home.
The goal prompted an improvement from Stoke, who thought they had equalised on the half-hour after Ennis inadvertently knocked the ball from Rushworth's grasp.
Ennis rolled the ball into the empty net - but saw his strike disallowed for a foul even though the contact with Rushworth had been unintentional.
Stoke came again, Million Manhoef twice firing wide as the visitors found some momentum before half-time.
Yet Swansea were gifted the chance to reassert control thanks to Luke McNally's clumsy challenge on Ollie Cooper.
The initial contact may have occurred outside the box, but Cooper tumbled into the area and referee Keith Stroud pointed to the spot.
There was no sign of nerves from Swansea captain Grimes, who drove his penalty high into the net.
A Stoke comeback never looked likely after that, particularly when Josh Laurent dragged wide, and Swansea wrapped up victory in style when Paterson's pass sent Jamal Lowe breaking down the left.
After a clever dummy flummoxed McNally, Lowe squared for the onrushing Key to burst beyond Michael Rose and smash in his first home goal in a Swansea shirt.
Swansea head coach Luke Williams:
"When we sit and review games, without the emotion on the day, we're controlling the game [in] the last three games we played.
"We get in there and we fizzle out a bit. We gave not too much to the opposition but something was missing because we're getting there and not quite scoring, we are keeping the opposition out but then they score from nothing.
"There has been something missing but tonight the intensity and aggression, all of that lovely stuff, we put back in and got a really great result."
Stoke head coach Steven Schumacher:
"I felt we got beaten 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.
"There's also a few key decisions that's gone against us. In any game in the Championship you need those big decisions to go for you, tonight unfortunately they didn't go our way."
