Preview | Swansea City v Stoke City
Swansea City are back on home turf on Saturday afternoon as they host Stoke City in the Sky Bet Championship at the Swansea.com Stadium (3pm KO).
The Swans will look to extend their unbeaten run in SA1 to 10 games after Liam Cullen's 95th-minute equaliser against Preston North End salvaged a point last time out at home.
Stoke, meanwhile, come into the fixture with one win in nine, and the Potters have not won away from home since their 2-0 victory over Norwich City on January 4th.
Team news
Vitor Matos has reported no new injury concerns ahead of this afternoon's clash, and will have a full squad to choose from.
Adam Idah and Zeidane Inoussa are the only absentees for Saturday’s home fixture.
Pre-match views
Vitor Matos: “We have had a proper reaction, the training sessions we have had have been really good and the effort they have put in has been unbelievable.
“The commitment was excellent, and it’s about making sure we understand how to compete against these teams.
“It is small details that will make a big difference, and if we get them wrong we will be punished and they will be really clinical and precise.
“When you have that you need to understand that you have to get everything right across the 90 minutes.
“So it is an important lesson to learn, and the boys have reacted well. Now, we focus on making sure we have the performance we want against Stoke.”
Mark Robins: “I think that our target has got to be good performances and those performances being enough to win three points. We’ve been competitive in nearly all of our games this season and that’s something we’ve got to carry on and see where we are.
“It’s 11 games so still a lot of football to be played. We want to try to crash those play-off places but we’re 10 points behind sixth. It takes some doing that, especially when you’re talking about the top of the table even in a league like this one.
“We want to pick up as many points as we can after these four games to international break – and seven when we return from that.
"We have to try to stay positive with it and hopefully we can get players back for that last block of games.”
Meet the officials
Ruebyn Ricardo will be the man in the middle when Swansea City face Stoke City this afternoon.
This will be the third Swans game Ricardo has officiated, having took charge of Swansea's 1-0 win over Middlesbrough at the Swansea.com Stadium last term, and the reverse fixture against the Potters in December.
So far this season, he has overseen 24 fixtures across the EFL handing out 109 yellow cards and four red cards.
On Saturday, he will be assisted by Alex James and James Wilson. Ross Martin will be the fourth official.
Remember the last time?
Swansea City played out a goalless draw against their Stoke City counterparts at the Swansea.com Stadium in their last Championship fixture before international break.
The home side extended their unbeaten run on home turf in the league but were left frustrated at taking only a point.
Swansea had the better of the chances throughout 90 minutes as Jisung Eom, Ronald and Žan Vipotnik all went close.
Prime numbers
5 - Swansea have the fifth-best home record in the Championship this season.
6 - Stoke City have lost six of their last 10 away Championship matches (W2 D2), scoring just six goals in total and failing to find the net in five of them.
23 - Swansea City have picked up 23 points in their last nine home Championship matches (W7 D2), conceding just four goals. In their previous nine home games, the Swans won nine points and conceded 15 times.