Mark Hughes disappointed not to win against Swansea

Stoke boss Mark Hughes says his side lost energy against Swansea

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes was disappointed his side did not take all three points from their clash with Swansea.

Stoke appeared firmly in control after taking a 2-0 lead against Swansea, until Gylfi Sigurdsson's 68th-minute strike reduced the deficit, and then Alberto Paloschi's deflected effort 11 minutes from time completed the turnaround for Francesco Guidolin's side.

Failure to convert an assured display into victory saw Stoke miss the chance to move up to seventh in the table and Hughes felt his team deserved to win the game.

"I'm a bit disappointed," he said after the match.

"We got ourselves into a winning position by playing really well and with the chances created it could have been more  but at 2-0, as everybody knows, it's difficult to protect and once we conceded the first goal we got a little bit anxious.

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"In saying that if you look at the opportunities Swansea created they had two shots on goal and they've gone in."

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Hughes felt that there were suspicions of offside over Swansea's equaliser, scored by Paloschi, but also felt tiredness was a factor in conceding a late goal.

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He added: "The second goal that got them level was offside, there was a guy interfering.

"There was a guy in the way of the ball, he was interfering so should be blown for offside, but from our point of view we probably saw the effects of the international break." 

Image: Alberto Paloschi (right) of Swansea celebrates scoring for Swansea

Despite the result, Hughes feels his team are still in contention for a European place.

"It's another point on the board, we've got three key games coming up," he said. 

"We'll keep going because we've got six games coming up so we're still in the mix talking about Europe. From our point of view that's a great season."

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