Thomas quickly becoming a key player for the Potters

In the age of "goal involvements" and a greater focus on assists as a statistic, it seems really harsh to deny players credit for a pass that causes an own goal.

Sorba Thomas' cross which forced Portsmouth defender Hayden Matthews into an intervention as unintended as it was decisive was a delivery worthy of recognition.

Thomas' ability from set-pieces and his quality from wide areas was widely praised before and after he signed for Stoke, but he can't have produced many more sustained periods of consistent quality than he has over the first dozen games of the season.

Stoke have scored 13 goals in the league and if you include the goal against Portsmouth, Thomas has been directly involved in nine.

He's scored four, assisted four more and created the winner at Fratton Park which works out at just under 70% of all of the goals Stoke have scored in the Championship this term.

Thomas has been an outstanding addition to the squad, whose energy and dribbling ability has given Stoke a consistently viable outlet when defending and, accused of sometimes lacking concentration early in his career, his defensive work has improved significantly too.

He's an important player for Wales now too and well on his way to setting career best marks for goals and assists in a season.

He'll certainly surpass the five goals he scored in the National League for Boreham Wood in 2019-20 and the tally of 12 assists he registered for Huddersfield in 2021-22 is more than beatable with 34 games still to play.

Now Stoke need one or two of his team-mates to get closer to matching Thomas' output.