Stoke City missed the chance to go above Swansea City in the table when they let a first-half lead slip and allowed their opponents to take control of the second period.
Garry Monk can now boast surviving a wet Wednesday in Stoke to winning a Welsh derby as his first two managerial achievements, though in truth Stoke were a shadow of their usual selves and seemed to be affected by the weather more than their visitors.
Swansea did almost all of the attacking after the interval, and almost gained full reward when Jonathan de Guzman forced a good save from Asmir Begovic in the closing minutes.
Tucked away rebound
Stoke went ahead just over a quarter of an hour into the game when Peter Odemwingie struck a post and Peter Crouch tucked away the rebound, deservedly as it happens since the scorer had supplied the pass to set up the initial shot.
Swansea had made a lively start but were lucky not to go two down a minute later, when Marko Arnautovic attempted what David Moyes would doubtless describe as a “worldy” from the edge of the area and was only denied by a fine reaction stop from Michel Vorm.
The gusty weather that had necessitated two pitch inspections and a delayed kick-off relented soon after the game started and Swansea began to rally. Charlie Adam was rightly booked for a barefaced trip on Dyer, an incident that led to a short outbreak of pushing and shoving during which Swansea's Ashley Williams also received a caution for manhandling Jon Walters.
Sit on their lead
By the break Swansea were doing most of the attacking, with Stoke content to sit on their lead and wait to see whether the visitors could force Begovic to make a save. On a wilder than average night at Stoke the sprinklers watering the pitch at half-time seemed a tad unnecessary, particularly as their unexpected appearance from ports in the pitch surprised and further drenched a hardy party of schoolchildren attempting a mini-football exhibition.
Bony, who saw a second-half effort fly narrowly wide, was gradually beginning to cause a few problems for the Stoke defence though it was Chico Flores who supplied the equaliser with a glancing header after Pablo Hernandez had returned a half cleared corner. It was not the most powerful of headers but the direction was perfect, leaving Bergovic little chance of keeping it out of his bottom left corner.
John Guidetti was brought on as Mark Hughes tried everything to change his luck, unfortunately on the few occasions he came close to getting involved the young forward on loan from Manchester City’s first touch let him down and the chances went begging.
Swansea are clearly no longer the soft touch they appeared a couple of months ago.
Guardian Service
STOKE CITY:
Begovic, Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson, Pieters, Adam, Whelan (Guidetti 68), Odemwingie, Walters (Nzonzi 56), Arnautovic (Assaidi 56), Crouch.
Subs Not Used:
Muniesa, Palacios, Sorensen, Ireland.
Booked:
Adam, Crouch.
SWANSEA CITY:
Vorm, Rangel, Chico, Williams, Ben Davies, Britton (Amat 90), Canas, Dyer (Emnes 82), Hernandez (de Guzman 75), Routledge, Bony.
Subs Not Used:
Taylor, Tremmel, Vazquez, Ngog. Booked: Williams, Britton.
Attendance:
24,822.
Referee:
Jon Moss (W Yorkshire).
