Swansea City Stoke Under-21s Cameron Toshack Owain Jones

A brace from striker Owain Jones in the first half helped Swansea City Under-21s beat Stoke 2-1 in Barclays Premier League Division Two at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.

Both teams started brightly as the Swans defence soaked up a number of early chances the Potters created.

It was the Swansea who broke the deadlock on 23 minutes as in-form striker Owain Jones turned with his back to goal to fire past Daniel Bachmann in the Stoke net.

The development squad doubled their lead ten minutes later when defender Stephen Kingsley put Jones through on goal to net his second - his seventh U21s goal in four games.

Potters striker Dom Telford pulled a goal back for the home side five minutes later to give them a lifeline at the break.

Stoke had chances to level in the second half only for Josh Vickers to deny midfielders Ollie Shenton and Mark Waddington.

At the other end, the young Swans could have extended their lead through Daniel James, Ryan Hedges and Adnan Maric only for Bachmann to keep the score 2-1 before the final whistle.

The result sees the development squad leapfrog Stoke into fourth place in Premier League Division Two with two games left to play.

Coach Cameron Toshack expressed his delight with the result that sees the development squad extend their unbeaten league run to five game.

"I'm pleased we have kept our consistency to maintain our undefeated run," he said.

"We made improvements since our win over Newcastle on Monday. The players took on board what we wanted to improve on which has helped earn us a huge result.

"On the counter attack we always looked a threat and that we could score more, but the most pleasing thing is that we showed more resilience out of possession making it difficult for Stoke to break us down.

"Overall, we worked hard and deserved the win."

The U21s next face two key games against Arsenal and Fulham at Landore in the coming weeks as they continue to chase a play-off place.

And Toshack called on the development players to continue their unbeaten run.

"If we continue to stick to our game plan for our upcoming games I am confident more good results will follow," he added.

"We still have hard work to do to ensure we secure a play-off spot. As a team we are looking forward to the next two games where we aim to keep our winning momentum going."

SWANS U21s: Josh Vickers, Aaron Lewis, Stephen Kingsley, Joe Rodon, Keston Davies, Adnan Maric, Jay Fulton, Adam King, Daniel James, Kenji Gorre, Owain Jones (Ryan Hedges, 55).

SUBS NOT USED: Tom Holland, Gregor Zabret, Alex Gogic, Ryan Blair.

STOKE U21s: Daniel Bachmann, Johnville Renee-Pringe, Joel Taylor, Eddy Lecygne, Liam Edwards, Lewis Banks, Sergio Molina, Mark Waddington, Dom Telford, Ollie Shenton, Choulay (Julien N'Goy, 46).

SUBS NOT USED: Harry Isted, Tom Edwards, Daniel Jarvis, Kosovar Sadaki.