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Swansea's Jefferson Montero wheels away to celebrate after scoring against Stoke

Jefferson Montero's first Swansea City goal helped secure a hard-earned win against stubborn 10-man Stoke City.

After a disjointed goalless first half, Gylfi Sigurdsson twice went close as the Swans dominated after the break.

The pressure eventually told with 15 minutes left, as Montero dived to head in Jonjo Shelvey's cross.

Stoke's Marc Wilson was sent off late on as he received a second yellow card for bringing down Montero, before Ki Sung-Yueng scored Swansea's second.

Swansea were excellent - Monk

Swansea's fourth win in six games strengthened the Welsh side's hold on eighth place in the table, while Stoke drop one spot to 10th following West Ham's win against Burnley.

While Swansea had surpassed their record Premier League points tally with a 3-2 win against Newcastle the previous weekend, Stoke missed the opportunity to equal their best haul in the division.

Previous meetings between these sides had been fractious affairs, with Swansea manager Garry Monk accusing Stoke winger Victor Moses of "cheating" to win a penalty during the Potters' 2-1 win in October.

Charlie Adam converted that contentious spot-kick, and he scored from another controversial penalty to snatch a late 3-3 draw for Stoke at Liberty Stadium last season.

It took the Scottish midfielder less than a minute to leave his mark on this occasion, seemingly treading on Lukas Fabianski's foot after the Swansea goalkeeper had cleared the ball.

If that flashpoint stirred the home crowd, there was precious little action to excite them for the remainder of a scrappy first half.

Match stats Swansea are unbeaten in their last six home games against Stoke (W5 D1 L0) Stoke have won just one of their last seven Premier League matches (W1 D2 L4) Swansea kept a clean sheet for the first time in eight Premier League games at Liberty Stadium After scoring a combined total of three goals in his first two PL campaigns, Ki Sung-Yueng has scored eight times in 2014-15. Marc Wilson's sending off for Stoke means all 20 Premier League teams have now collected at least one red card this season 12 of Swansea's 16 shots came in the second half

The game's first shot on target arrived only two minutes before the break, as Shelvey's effort from the edge of the area was comfortably held by Jack Butland.

That seemed to bring the match to life, as moments later N'Zonzi's arcing 20-yard shot was well tipped over the crossbar by Fabianski.

The second half began as the first ended, with Sigurdsson whipping a long-range effort against the bar before wasting a glorious headed opportunity eight yards out.

Second half disappointing - Hughes

Swansea pressed relentlessly and created another chance for Sigurdsson who shot wide, but Stoke dug in to withstand the pressure.

Their resistance was eventually broken as Shelvey wriggled clear in the box and chipped a cross towards the back post, where Montero dived in to head his first goal for Swansea.

Stoke's fate was sealed when Wilson's hack on Montero saw the Potters' defender sent off for a second booking.

The Swans then added a final gloss to the scoreline as a swift counter-attack set up substitute Ki to calmly roll the ball into the bottom corner.

Swansea manager Garry Monk: "I think we were playing at 70% in the first half. Our tempo was slow. I had words with the players at half-time, and in the second half, we were excellent.

"The feeling can be that you get safe and that's the job done. It's about getting the players to want more than that. They key is pushing and demanding higher standards, and the players do that for themselves as well.

"I'll have to reassess our target for the remainder of the season. I keep setting a new one every week."

Stoke manager Mark Hughes: "We allowed the game to drift away from us. We haven't stopped crosses coming in, and we have to be better that that. The first goal was the one that hurt us. We've lost the first goal too often this year.

"I don't think there was any issue with desire, but we just didn't have enough quality in key areas to take the game away from Swansea. We know where we need to improve."