Nathan Jones believes he can spearhead a Stoke revival after Scott Hogan’s 90th-minute goal ended their winless start to the season at Swansea.
The Potters found themselves behind to an Andre Ayew goal within a minute of kick-off at the Liberty Stadium but Sam Clucas levelled matters before Hogan’s last-gasp effort sealed a 2-1 victory.
And manager Jones is hopeful the result can spark a run of success for his side.
“I know I can turn the job around,” said Jones. “That’s never been the thing.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking and soul searching over the last week and I’m a passionate guy, that’s got me the career I’ve had.
“At Luton I was a passionate guy who drove the team on and the fans loved me for it. Here, it’s the Championship, it’s much scrutinised, so I’ve gone back to being me and I like being me because I have to live with me.
“I’m a forward thinking coach and manager and I take a lot on me. I never shirk a challenge or avoid one. I meet it head-on.
“Catalyst is a good word for it, we needed something to speed things up, almost in a scientific, chemical way. It’s a first step but we can’t get carried away.
“It’s just one step. For six or seven of the previous 10 games we have made big errors. We have had a foothold in games and then had a red card. Things like that have gone against us.
“You can’t keep saying that over a 46-game season but our results were baffling. By all logic they shouldn’t have been happening, so hopefully this can be a turning point.”
Jones’ bid to kickstart Stoke’s season and save his job against former league leaders Swansea got off to the worst possible start.
Yan Dhanda sprinted clear and fired a low shot that Adam Federici could only block into the path of Ayew, who tucked the rebound away for his second goal in two games.
However, the Potters gave themselves a lifeline after 22 minutes thanks to Clucas. Joe Allen broke into the box and forced a reaction save from Freddie Woodman, but Clucas was on hand to smash home the rebound.
Jones then sent on the attacking duo of Sam Vokes and Hogan after the hour mark to devastating effect. With the clock ticking down, Woodman reacted quickly to palm Vokes’ header back into the danger zone and Hogan produced a poacher’s finish to snatch a vital win.
Swansea were knocked off top spot by West Brom as a result of the defeat, and manager Steve Cooper believes they must go back to basics.
“The result was poor and the performance was equally as poor,” he said. “We fell short with our performance levels and didn’t do what we aim to do in every game.
“Ultimately it cost us. We turned the ball over too many times, we didn’t press well enough.
“We wanted to show Stoke into certain areas, but when we had them there we let them out come out.
“When you don’t do the basics well enough it will cost you and that was the case. It was as black and white as that.
“We had a perfect start. You go a goal up and you should build on that, and we did. We created other chances where we were good going forward, but for some reason we didn’t want to play forward, we didn’t want to break lines. We didn’t want to be brave enough in areas of the pitch to make a difference.”
