Swansea City v Stoke City Competition - Sky Bet Championship Date - 5 October 2019 Kick off - 3.00pm Venue - Liberty Stadium Following their deserved 2-1 away victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Charlton, next up for Steve Cooper’s Swansea squad is a home match against bottom of the table Stoke City. The Swans produced another top-drawer performance to beat Charlton and maintain their unbeaten away record with the victory meaning that they regained top spot in the Championship, with Andre Ayew scoring his first Swansea City league goal since May 2016. The forward's 65th-minute strike sealed a comeback win for the Swans, after Charlton had gone ahead inside two minutes through Jonathan Leko, who drove home from 15 yards with the aid of a deflection. Yan Dhanda levelled for Swansea with another deflected effort at the end of a bright passing move, before Ayew's close-range effort secured a sixth victory in 10 league games under Cooper. Charlton could have few complaints as they failed to build on their impressive weekend win over Leeds United - only the second home defeat in the League in 12 months for Lee Bowyer’s team. The previous evening, Juninho Bacuna cranked up the pressure on Stoke City manager Nathan Jones with a late winner for Huddersfield Town that leaves the Potters bottom of the Championship, without a league win in 16 games. Jones conceded after the game that the owners had already given him "enough time" to "arrest the downward spiral", and went on to apologise for their poor form. Bacuna, who was brought on as a substitute to give the Terriers a lift amid real Stoke pressure, handed new boss Danny Cowley his first victory and the club's first in 20 matches. In a game of few clear-cut chances, he scampered forward, played a one-two with fellow sub Adama Diakhaby and smashed the ball past Adam Federici, who had replaced England goalkeeper Jack Butland. It was a cruel sucker-punch for a Stoke side that had enjoyed the majority of possession, albeit without truly challenging Town keeper Kamil Grabara. Since their first meeting on Christmas Day 1925, the Swans and Stoke have played each other on 72 occasions, with Swansea winning 23, Stoke winning 28 and 21 draws. In the corresponding match last season, the Swans ran out 3-1 thanks to goals from James, VdH and Oli - Stoke had defenders Bruno Martins Indi and Tom Edwards both saw red for fouls on James. Turning to Saturday, on paper a Top v Bottom match it is often all too easy to predict a win for the League leaders - particularly when they are at home. That said, I have a feeling that, with Nathan Jones very much in ‘the last chance saloon’, his Stoke team (which could contain 3 former Jacks in Allen, Clucas and Carter-Vickers) will make life extremely difficult for Cooper’s men and will leave the Liberty with a point. Although I’m hoping for another 3-1 victory over Stoke, I actually think it will be a 1-1 draw.
