{"id":315825,"date":"2025-12-14T16:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/315825\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T16:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T16:14:10","slug":"what-swansea-boss-said-about-stoke-city-speaks-volumes-as-best-in-division-claim-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/315825\/","title":{"rendered":"What Swansea boss said about Stoke City speaks volumes as &#8216;best in division&#8217; claim made"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Championship newcomer Vitor Matos knew he would be in for a rough ride at Stoke City<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Stoke-City-v-Swansea-City-Sky-Bet-Championship-Bet365-Stadium.jpg\" alt=\"Swansea City manager Vitor Matos on the sidelines at Stoke.\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Swansea City manager Vitor Matos on the sidelines at Stoke.(Image: Barrington Coombs\/PA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Vitor Matos knew how important a game it was for Stoke City as <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stokesentinel.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/stoke-city-swansea-live-stream-10702035\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">he turned up with Swansea at the bet365 Stadium<\/a> &#8211; and rates Stoke as one of the best teams in the Championship so far this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Matos had won his previous two on the bounce before arriving in the Potteries but he was wary of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stokesentinel.co.uk\/all-about\/stoke-city-fc\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">a Stoke side<\/a> that had slipped to eighth in the table on the back of three straight losses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stokesentinel.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/stoke-city-ben-pearson-goal-10704010\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Goals from Ben Pearson and Sorba Thomas<\/a> set up a 2-1 home win but Matos could take positives from what he saw from the visitors, who now turn their focus to a match against Wrexham in South Wales on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Matos said: \u201cI think there is a lot we can take from the game, we grew into the game and that was a target for us. We know Stoke has been one of the best teams in the division this year and they would be looking to react (after a difficult run).<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cWe wanted to try and grab the game for us in terms of dominance and I think that is the next step we need to have. We need to be able to do that against any team. We suffered, but we also created chances at 0-0 and 1-0. In the second half we made changes and they scored almost immediately when we did that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cFrom there we grew into the game again and we felt we could get the two goals. We scored the one and we had this feeling we could get something. The character to show we were willing to keep going was important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cI have said from the beginning it will be a process, it will take time, and with this comes ups and downs. We are seeing the dominance and the aggression, now we need to grow that more consistently and understand that when we come to these places we need to grab the game from the beginning and not wait for the game to come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Your verdict on the game? <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stokesentinel.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/stoke-city-swansea-vitor-matos-10704295#comments-wrapper\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Click HERE to join the debate<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package<\/p>\n<p>This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stokesentinel.co.uk\/affiliates\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Learn more<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765655773_690_0_Sky-Factbox.jpg\" alt=\"Content Image\" fetchpriority=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a349<\/p>\n<p>\u00a335<\/p>\n<p>Sky<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"AffiliateContent_content-buy-btn__xWiVO buy-btn\" aria-label=\"Buy button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=11005&amp;awinaffid=213635&amp;campaign=&amp;clickref=Regionals-FootballLondon&amp;ued=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sky.com%2Fdeals&amp;platform=pl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\">Get Sky Sports here<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Sky has slashed the price of its <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=11005&amp;awinaffid=213635&amp;campaign=&amp;clickref=Regionals-FootballLondon&amp;ued=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sky.com%2Fdeals&amp;platform=pl\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Essential TV and Sky Sports<\/a> bundle for the 2025\/26 season, saving members \u00a3336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games this season, an increase of up to 100 more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">While you&#8217;re here, we have launched a new WhatsApp group to deliver the latest Stoke news directly to your phone. <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/LKaSqZKU1n33fE1SlzOasB\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Click on this link,Link opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Click on this link,<\/a> select &#8216;Join Chat&#8217; and you&#8217;re in. If for some reason you decide you no longer want to be in our community, you can leave at any time by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking &#8216;Exit Group&#8217;, simple as that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Championship newcomer Vitor Matos knew he would be in for a rough ride at Stoke CitySwansea City manager&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[125412,218,24820,82106,101,119216,33356,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-315825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-ben-pearson","tag-football","tag-football-league-championship","tag-sorba-thomas","tag-sports","tag-stoke-city-fc","tag-swansea-city-fc","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}