Premier League: Stoke 2 Swansea 0

Stoke City gave their league campaign a much-needed boost on Sunday with a 2-0 win over Swansea at the Britannia Stadium.

The win sees Stoke take three points in the league for just the second time in 2012 and helped them rise above Swansea and West Brom into 12th place in the league.

Stoke went ahead in the 24th minute via a Matthew Upson header, and Peter Crouch doubled their lead when he powered a header home 15 minutes later.

Swansea certainly started the brighter, with Nathan Dyer racing down the right-flank to drag the ball across the Stoke box to Scott Sinclair who, after dropping his marker, swiped at the ball fiercely but could only send it over Asmir Begovic’s goal.

Swansea were dominating as Stoke struggled to get a grasp on the ball, but the visitors were lacking that final pass to make their hosts pay.

Stoke, however, went on to disrupt the run of play and score the opener from a corner. Coming in from the right, Upson got his head to the set-piece and sent a powerful effort storming through the pack inside the box and into Gerhard Tremmel’s top-corner.

Ryan Shotton was the architect for Stoke’s second just before the break, the young flanker sending a throw-in straight into the heart of the box and Crouch rose above everyone to nod the ball home.

Tremmel did well to get a touch, but he could not keep the ball out and Stoke headed to the break in total control.

The hosts began the second-half as they had finished the first and had Swansea frequently pinned down in their own territory.

The Stoke attackers constantly worked the ball around the Swans’ defenders and had Tremmel working overtime.

Swansea, though, started to regain some confidence and gave Stoke numerous set-pieces to deal with that kept Begovic on his toes, but again they struggled to conjure any real danger.

Steven Caulker almost gave Swansea a consolation goal from close-range, getting his head to a cross and forcing a tremendous save from Begovic to retain his clean-sheet.

The hosts were happy to allow Swansea to come at them and they sat back until the final whistle to claim a rare three points.