Swansea 3 Stoke 3: Thrilling stuff at the Liberty Stadium, but a result that disappointed both sides. At various times both Swansea and Stoke thought they had the match won, but a penalty by Charlie Adam in added time left them with a point each from a fractious scrap in which the referee, Robert Madley, was rarely in complete control.
Stoke, 2-0 up at half-time, believed they were set for their first win in the Premier League since the end of August. In the second half, the Swans hit back to lead 3-2, but with the stopwatch showing 96 minutes a handball by Wayne Routledge enabled Adam, on as substitute, to restore parity.
Both these teams were in need of a restorative result. Stoke arrived in dire form, without a victory in seven attempts in the league since winning 1-0 at West Ham on the last day of August. Their poverty since that date had been such that until yesterday, their goalkeeper Asmir Begovic was joint leading scorer, with one goal.
Against the struggling Swans, however, they put those travails behind them, taking a 2-0 lead by the 25th minute.
Jonathan Walters opened the scoring in the eighth minute, Peter Crouch heading on a long clearance from Begovic and left back Ben Davies slipping to allow Walters a free run in the inside-right channel, from where he angled his shot across Gerhard Tremmel and into the far corner.
Apart from Davies going to ground, the Republic of Ireland international's first goal of the season had been further facilitated by the absence of Ashley Williams, the Swansea centre half and captain, who was off the field, receiving treatment.
Wilfried Bony made a hash of a good chance at close range before Stoke doubled their advantage with a gem of a goal, some lovely interpassing in which Walters and Crouch were prominent, culminating in a smart finish by Stephen Ireland, who drew Tremmel before lifting the ball over him and into the net from eight yards.
Bony’s first half went from bad to worse. The muscular Ivorian dithered in the penalty area, enabling Begovic to dispossess him, then headed horribly wide at the far post from Angel Rangel’s cross.
After 56 minutes, however, Bony atoned for his errors, heading in Jonathan de Guzmán’s right-wing cross, and it was game on again. Stoke were under the cosh and Swansea equalised in the 73rd minute, when Routledge’s cross from the left was headed out by Walters straight to Dyer, whose bouncing shot from 12 yards beat Begovic to his right.
Swansea's transformation from deficit to profit was completed after 86 minutes, when Jonjo Shelvey's centre from the left was driven home by Bony. Still Stoke weren't finished and when Routledge handled a header from Ryan Shawcross, they had their point.
