Jonathan Kodjia came to Aston Villa’s rescue salvaging a point late on. The visitors twice took the lead but Kodjia demonstrated his value by winning a penalty and then notching the equaliser.
Joe Allen, who impressed for Stoke, opened the scoring two minutes into the second half and Benik Afobe hit the other from the penalty spot 12 minutes from time.
But it was Kodjia who saved Villa, extending their unbeaten run to seven games, and his manager, Dean Smith, paid tribute to his impact sub and told the BBC the draw was a fair result.
“It was a deserved point for both teams. I didn’t think there was an awful lot in that game and the conditions probably levelled out the home advantage.
“We know we’ve got goals in us but we weren’t creating too many clear cut chances.People raise their game when they play us as that’s as well as I’ve seen Stoke play.”Kieran Gibbs lifts West Brom to third with winner at Sheffield United Read more
Allen went close to giving Stoke an early lead but his close-range effort went into the side netting. The visitors were clearly the more dangerous attacking unit and Ørjan Nyland had to show great agility to keep out a goalbound shot from Cuco Martina.
Villa were kept in check and Tammy Abraham, who had scored eight goals in seven games, was closely shackled by the Stoke captain, Ryan Shawcross.
The Stoke goalkeeper, Jack Butland, had to be on his toes to flip a free-kick from Conor Hourihane over the crossbar.Axel Tuanzebe then failed to make clean contact with a header from Glenn Whelan’s left-wing corner.
However two minutes into the second half, Stoke caught Villa cold. James McLean robbed Alan Hutton before sending over a cross which found the unmarked Allen to rifle past Nyland.
Kodjia was then introduced in the 66th minute and it did not take long for him to make an impact, being brought down in the box by Erik Peters before Abraham stepped up to convert the spot kick in the 73rd minute for his 12th goal of the season.
Stoke regained the lead five minutes later when Ahmed Elmohamady needlessly tripped McLean and Afobe made no mistake with the resulting penalty.
Kodjia then ensured the hosts did not finish empty handed when he deftly headed home a right-wing cross from Yannick Bolasie six minutes from time.