Mark Robins hailed Lewis Baker’s stunning stoppage-time strike as a “thing of beauty” as the substitute’s long-range effort sealed Stoke’s 3-1 Sky Bet Championship comeback win over Swansea.
Baker, on his 100th appearance for the Potters and 300th of this career, let fly from around 65 yards and watched the ball sail over stranded goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux.
Trailing to former Stoke star Josh Tymon’s 61st-minute opener, the home side rallied with goals from Wouter Burger – a day shy of his 24th birthday – and South Korean international Bae Jun-ho.
Baker’s brilliance from the centre circle topped off boss Robins’ first home success since taking charge at the bet365 Stadium.
“It was out of this world,” Robins . “It is one of the best goals this stadium will have ever seen.
“It should be all over the world’s televisions tonight because it was magnificent; not only to have the vision, but also to have the technique to execute it.
“There are not many who can do it. David Beckham and now Lewis Baker. Happy days.
“The keeper wasn’t that far out, but he hit it that hard the ball was over his head before he knew it. It was an incredible goal.
“It is euphoric and you are privileged to see something like that when you are in a stadium.”
On the elusive jome victory, just the third of his short reign to date, Robins added: “The way the players celebrated I said to them ‘I can’t wait to win something with you if this is how you celebrate a win.
“It is not about me. It’s about us and getting a deserved win from a good performance.
“The lads can take great heart from it because to a man they were outstanding.”
Swansea boss Luke Williams pulled no punches about his team’s collapse in the final half-hour, which brought a seventh defeat in eight games in all competitions.
He admitted his current squad is not good enough to compete in the second tier.
“Statistically, in football, it is nearly impossible to lose the game 3-1 when you score first at that point in the game,” said Williams. “But we found a way.
“From having a very decent first half of season, we have completely wasted this second half so far.
“We are eight points away from the bottom, but we need to get the job done so we can start building for next season quite honestly.
“This is nowhere near a good enough group to have a good season in the Championship. They have proven that.”
Williams was also livid by the manner of Stoke’s first two goals, both coming from set-pieces on the away side’s right flank via deliveries from Baker and Million Manhoef.
“We gave away cheap free-kicks and didn’t defend the balls into the box. It is different if you are making a last-ditch tackle, but the players weren’t going anywhere.
“If that was the goal (Baker’s stunner) to draw the game level, I would have accepted it because it was a fantastic strike.
“But we were already out of the game by then because we gave away cheap free-kicks.”
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