Stoke away Steve Cooper Andre Ayew

Steve Cooper | We kept playing our way and got the rewards

3rd March
First team

Steve Cooper hailed the resilience and never-say-die attitude of his Swansea City side as they secured a dramatic victory at Stoke thanks to Andre Ayew’s late penalty.

The visitors trailed early on to a Nick Powell goal at the bet365 Stadium, and Marc Guehi had seen his pass across his own area cut out.

But the Swans responded superbly from that setback to level through Connor Roberts’ fourth goal of the season.

And they snatched all three points with almost the last kick of the match as Ayew coolly converted from the spot after Kyle Naughton had been fouled by Jack Clarke.

It gave the Swans a first win in the Potteries since 2001, and head coach Cooper was delighted with how his side responded to their early setback.

“You always hope another opportunity comes to win the game, you never give up and you keep on going,” he said.

Stoke away Andre Ayew penalty

“That’s what happened, we got a chance right at the end with the penalty.

“If you think about how it is, we’ve passed our way up the pitch, we’ve got our wide centre-backs getting in the box to try and create.

“It’s not long balls going in and looking for second balls, or forcing the game. It’s us trying to do what we do and, in the end, we did it well.

“We played well tonight, even though we had a difficult start to the night.

“We conceded a goal that can sometimes happen with the way we play, but we put it behind us, we stuck at how we wanted to play and got back in the game with an excellent goal.

“We kept playing, there was an ebb and flow to the game in the second half, but in the last 20 minutes we were the team looking to go on and win it.”