Stoke City 0-2 Bristol City: Wells and Weimann give Robins victory
- Published
Nahki Wells' goal at the Bet 365 Stadium was his first of the season
Bristol City maintained their winning start to the new Championship season with victory at Stoke.
Forward Nahki Wells put the Robins ahead in first-half stoppage time, hooking in Chris Martin's pull back from close range.
Andreas Weimann wrapped up the points late on, slotting in from 12 yards.
Stoke failed to register an effort on target, with defenders Danny Batth and Tommy Smith both seeing efforts go over the bar.
Bristol City are one of only three sides - Reading and Luton being the others - to win their opening two Championship fixtures, and have now won all four games in all competitions this season under new head coach Dean Holden.
Stoke, meanwhile, have taken one point from their first two games, but, worryingly have only scored once in all four of their fixtures - that being Jacob Brown's late winner at Wolves in the Carabao Cup on Thursday.
Brown went closest for Stoke in the first half when he fired over from the edge of the box, but the Potters failed to test Bristol City keeper Daniel Bentley, even after introducing Steven Fletcher and Tyrese Campbell from the bench.
Bristol City, for whom Tyreeq Bakinson impressed in midfield, looked the most dangerous side throughout, with Stoke keeper Adam Davies denying Wells early on after the forward had pounced on Sam Clucas' poor backpass.
Weimann twice went close, while Martin and Jack Hunt shot off target before Wells opened the scoring when he swivelled in the six-yard box to fire home after Martin knocked Hunt's cross back across goal.
That was the first goal Stoke had conceded this season, and their defence was breached again when Batth was caught in possession and Antoine Semenyo slotted in Weimann to wrap up the points.
'We scrapped when we needed to' - post-match reaction
Stoke boss Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Stoke:
"We didn't start the game well, the opposition did and had the better of the opening 15-20 minutes. From then on we were much improved but we lost a really poor goal before half-time.
"We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and we weren't able to do that in the second half and lost another really poor goal at the end. It's very frustrating.
"We played against a good team and we have to give credit to the opposition, but I thought we were flat in possession and weren't brave enough."
Bristol City head coach Dean Holden told BBC Radio Bristol:
"You can't come to a place like this and not scrap, and we scrapped when we needed to.
"It's a balance in every performance and in the first 15 minutes I thought some of our play was outstanding, we cut Stoke open and created two great chances.
"To score when we did was really pleasing and then we had to come out in the second half with the mindset that we would take the game away from Stoke rather than sitting on a 1-0, and it was a really good finish from Andi Weimann.
"When we've got the ball we want to play our way, and play some exciting, attacking football, but when we've not got it we need to be tough, dogged and hard to beat. All in all, it was our toughest game going into it, but to win four from four is really pleasing."