Stoke allowed game to ´drift away´ – Hughes

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes criticised Stoke City for allowing the game to “drift away” in their 2-0 Premier League defeat to Swansea City on Saturday.

Swansea were dominant in the second half and came away with the three points courtesy of goals from Jefferson Montero and substitute Ki Sung-yueng.

“We allowed the game to drift away from us,” Hughes is quoted as saying by BBC Sport. “We haven’t stopped crosses coming in and we have to be better than that.

“The first goal was the one that hurt us. We’ve lost the first goal too often this year.

“I don’t think there was any issue with desire, but we just didn’t have enough quality in key areas to take the game away from Swansea. We know where we need to improve.”

Stoke saw Marc Wilson sent off for a second bookable offence between Swansea’s two goals.

“I thought Marc Wilson was a little unlucky on the first booking. It probably looked worse than it was,” Hughes added.

“The second one was a silly challenge really.”

The result saw Stoke drop to 10th, denting their hopes of beating their best Premier League finish of ninth.