Vitor Matos lauds ‘beautiful’ Liam Cullen strike as Swansea beat Stoke

Swansea head coach Vitor Matos hailed Liam Cullen’s magical 50-yard strike as “a beautiful goal” after the 2-0 home win against Stoke.

Cullen made sure of victory with a spectacular effort in stoppage time after Championship top scorer Zan Vipotnik had scored his 17th league goal of the season in the 53rd minute.

It was enough to extend Swansea’s unbeaten home league run to 10 matches and leave Stoke with just one victory in 11 in all competitions.

The visitors had to play nearly an hour with 10 men after Wales international Sorba Thomas was dismissed for a shove on Goncalo Franco after 36 minutes, having been booked for a foul 13 minutes earlier.

That proved decisive, although Swansea were unable to add to Vipotnik’s goal until the second minute of stoppage time.

Matos said of Cullen’s effort: “It was just a beautiful goal.

“From the outside, it’s really beautiful because you see the ball going and it’s just the right amount of speed, just the right amount of power.

“It didn’t even need to roll. It’s just straight there. So it was a wonderful strike.”

He added: “The win was always about how to play with an extra player. I think that’s quite important.

“You need to have the right structure, you need to have the right mindset, the right discipline, and we had that.

“The goal gave us a little bit of tranquillity and we kept the momentum for 70 minutes. Stoke reacted but we stayed calm to get the game back under control.

“The bench was really important and when you have Liam you can always score, which he did with a wonderful goal.”

Thomas had been booked early on for a soft foul before he collided with Franco and pushed the Portuguese midfielder over.

Referee Ruebyn Ricardo viewed that as worthy of a second yellow card, although Stoke boss Mark Robins felt the first card was a poor decision.

Robins had less sympathy for Thomas over the second yellow and suggested his player had struck out at Franco as they collided.

“Sobra had a first yellow card that didn’t look like a yellow card,” said Robins.

“How can you be penalised for trying to take a shot mid-air and somebody is putting the head down? How?

“Was anybody hurt? No. So, that puts him on a tightrope, but for all the good he’s done after that, the second yellow can’t happen.

“It’s a loss of discipline. Whether it was a kick out or whatever, I don’t know.

“The goal that we conceded was really poor but we still carried a threat right up until the end. We need to lick our wounds ready for the game [against Ipswich] on Tuesday.”